1

MY STRUGGLE

It would not be e^aggerating to say that no mor&
important autohiography than this bas been pub-
lished since the War, and certainly no autobio-
graphy has been issued for decades over which
controversy has raged so bitterly, Whatever
one^s political views may be, it is a book every-
one should read, for it reveals the forces and cir-
cumstances which went to make a remarkable
character, whose intense belief in bis ideals won
over a mighty nation, and changed the course of
hisiory.

The News Chronicle called it '"an astonishing
hook^'*; the Evening News said : "It commands
attentionT Morning Post: "We recommend
a dose study of this bookT The Evening
Standard said\ "The whole of the politica»
Hitler is in these brutally candid pagesT The
Yorkshire Post said : "The book should be
extremely valuable in enabling English readers to
obtain a general conception of Hitleds theories T
Major F. Yeats-Brown wrote : "I hope My
Struggle will be published in a cheap editionT

MY STRUGGLE

h y A. d 0 l f Hitler

^2nd Thousand

NUMBEK II

THE PATERNOSTER LIBRARY

THE PATERNOSTER LIBRARY

(Hurst cy Blackett, Ltd.)

34 Paternoster Row - E.C.4

First published (18/- net)

. October, 1933

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1933

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1933

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Sixth

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Eighth

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1933

Ninth

9 t

. January, 1934

Tenth

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1934

Cheap Edition

. October, 1935

>>

. December, 1935

99

. March, 1936

»

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99

, September, 1936

99

. December, 1936

99

. April, 1937

99

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99

. March, 1938

5 •>

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99

• July, 1938

Made and Printed in Great Britain
for Hurst & Blackett, Ltd., Pater¬
noster House, London, E.C.4. at
The Gainsborougb Press St. Albans,
Fisher, Knight & Co., Ltd.

AUTHOR’S FOREWORD

( )n November gth, 1923, the fourth year from its Start,
tlic National Socialist German Workers’ Party was
ilissolved and prohibited throughout the Reich.

On April ist, 1924, under the sentence of the
National Courts of Justice in Munich, I was condemned
(o detention in the fortress of Landsberg am Lech.

This gave me, after years of uninterrupted labour,
niy first opportunity of attacking a work which many
were asking for, and which 1 myself considercd profit¬
able for the Movement. So I have decided to explain
the aims of our Movement in a book and also to draw
a picture of how it developed. There is more to be
learned from it than from any purely doctrinaire treatise.

It has also given me an opportunity of describing
myself, as far as it will help me to make the volume
comprehensiblc, and to destroy the cvil legendary
fabrications of the Jewish press about me.

In this work I turn not to strangers, but to those
adhcrents of the Movement who belong to it in their
hearts and wish for enlightenment regarding it.

I know that fewer people are won over by the
written than the spoken word, and that the growth of
every great Movement on earth is duc to great Speakers
and not to great writers.

Nevertheless, in order to produce equality and
unity in defence of any doctrine, its eternal principles
must be laid down. May this book, therefore, be
the building stone which I contribute to the joint
work.

To-day, the Party Stands erect throughout the
Empire, stronger and more firmly established than
ever before. ^ ^

TRANSLATOR’S PREFACE

The Translator has endeavoured, in his abridgment of
I Icrr Hitler’s work, to include all the Sentiments and
idcals of govemment which the Author expresses in his
romplete work.

His passionate wish for the regeneration of his race
pcrvades the whole of the book, and he has succeeded
in inspiring the youth of Germany with his ideals. As
lar as can be judged from the book itself, Herr Hitler
looks to the Movement to make the German nation
call for the kind of govemment which he considers to
l)c the right one, and to eliminate, if necessary by
Ibrce, all elements which may try to oppose it.

Herr Hitler is more explicit about the fiiture of
foreign policy than about domestic administration ; at
the time of writing his book perhaps he regarded his
own constnictive work as being chiefly to set Germany
going along the right lines and to keep her thcrc.

CONTENTS

PART ONE

CHA.PTKR

I. MY HOME

II. MY STUDIES AND STRUGGLES IN VIENNA

III. POLITICAL GONSIDERATIONS RESULTING

FROM MY TIME IN VIENNA

IV. MUNICH . .

V. THE WORLD WAR

VI. WAR PROPAGANDA
Vn. THE REVOLUTION

Vin. THE START OF MY POLITICAL LIFE , .

IX. THE GERMiVN WORKERS’ PARTY

X. THE PREMONITORY SIGNS OF COLLAPSE
IN THE OLD EMPIRE

XI, NATION AND RAGE

XII. THE FIRST PERIOD IN THE DEVELOP¬
MENT OF THE NATIONAL SOCIALIST
GERMAN WORKERS’ PARTY

PAGE

17

20

37

61

73

80

85

93

98

102

120

132

PART TWO

I. WORLD THEORY AND PARTY .. .. I47

II. THE STATE . . . . . . . . 152

III. CmZENS AND SUBJEGTS OF THE STATE 174

IV. PERSONALITY AND THE CONCEPTION OF

THE NATION.\L STATE . . . . 1 76

V. WORLD THEORY AND ORGANIZATION 181

VI. THE STRUGGLE IN THE EARLY DAYS :

THE IMPORTANCE OF ORATORY . . 186

VII. THE STRUGGLE WITH THE RED FORGES 103

VIII. THE STRONG MAN IS STRONGEST WHEN

ALONE . . .. . . . . 203

CONTENTS

CHAPTER

IX. THOUGHTS ON THE MEANING AND

ORGANIZATION OF THE SOGIALIST
WORKERS

X. THE SH AM OF FEDER ALISM . .

XI. PROPAGANDA .\ND ORGANIZATION . .

XII. THE TRADE UNION QUESTION

XIII. GERMAN POLICY OF ALLTANGE AFTER

THE WAR

XIV. POLICY IN THE ORIENT

XV. EMERGENGY DEFENGE AS A RIGHT . .
INDEX .. .* ». •• •• •*

PAGE

207

222

232

237

241

253

263

281

PART ONE

i

MY STRUGGLE

GHAPTER I

MY HOME

I T Stands me in good stead to-day that Fate decided
that Braunau on the Inn should be my birthplace.
'That little town lies on the frontier between the two
German States, the re-union of which we younger ones
regard as a work worthy of accomplishment by all the
ineans in our power.

German-Austria will have to return to the great
German Motherland, but not for economic reasons.
No, no ! Even if re-union, looked at from that point
of view, were a matter of indifference—nay, even if it
were actually injurious—it would still have to come.
Common blood should belong to a common Reich.
The German people have no right to dabble in a
colonial policy as long as they are unable to gather
their own sons into a common State. Not tili the
confines of the Reich include every single German, and
are certain of being able to nourish him, can there be
a moral right for Germany to acquire territory abroad
whilst her people are in need. Thus it comes about
that the little frontier town is to me the Symbol of a
great enterprise.

Are we not the same as all other Germans ? Do
we not all belong together ?

This Problem began to seethe in my childish brain.
In answer to my shy questions, I was obliged with
secret envy to accept the fact that all Germans were
not so fortunate as to be members of Bismarck’s Empire.

B

M>

mmm

MY STRUGGLE

19

18 MY STRUGGLE

I did not want to become an officiaL Neither
‘‘talking to” nor “serious” argument made any dif-
ference to my reluctance. I did not want to be an
official, and refused to be one. Any attempt, by
quoting my father’s examples, to arouse love or keen-
ness for that calling only had the contrary effect. I
hated and was bored by the idea of having to sit tied
to an Office, of not being master of my own time, of
spending the whole of my life filling up forms.

Now, when I review the effect on myself of all those
years, I see two facts which stand out most con-
spicuously : (i) I became a Nationalist, and (ii) I
'learned to grasp and understand history in its true
sense.

The old Austria was a State of many nationalities.

In comparatively early youth I had an opportunity
of taking part in a struggle of nationality in the old
Austria. We had a school society, and expressed our
Sentiments with cornflowers and the black-red-gold
colours, and there was cheering, and we sang ''Deutch-
land über Alles'' in preference to the Austrian Kaiserlied,
in spite of warning and punishments. Thus the youth
were being educated politically at an age when a
member of a so-called national State usually knows
little about his nationality except its language. Even
then I obviously could not be counted amongst the
lukewarm. I soon became a fanatical German
Nationalist—not, however, the same thing as con-
ceived by that Party to-day.

This development progressed very rapidly in me, so
that by the time I was fifteen I had understood the
difference between dynastic ‘"patriotism” and populär
‘^nationalism” ; I knew far more about the latter.

Did not we boys already know that this Austrian
State had and could have no love for us Germans ?

Our historical knowledge of the methods of the
Plouse of Habsburg was corroborated by what we saw
every day. In the North and the South the poison of

ihe foreign races ate into the body of our nationality,
.ukI even Vienna was visibly becoming less and less a
(Jcrinan city. The Royal House were becoming Gzech
in every possible way ; and it was the hand of the
goddess of eternal justice and inexorable retribution
(hat caused the most deadly enemy of Germanism in
Austria, the Archduke Francis Ferdinand, to fall by
die very bullets which he had himself helped to mould.
And he was the chief patron of the Movement, working
[Vom above to make Austria a Slav State !

The germ of the future world war, and indeed of
the general collapse, lay in the disastrous connection of
the young German Empire with the Austrian shadow
State.

In the course of this book I shall have to deal
cxhaustively with this problem. It is enough to state
here that from my earliest youth I was convinced that
Austria’s destruction was a necessary condition for the
Security of the German race, and, moreover, that the
feeling of nationality is in no way identical with dynastic
patriotism ; also that the House of Habsburg was sct
upon doing harm to the German race.

Even then I perceived the deductions from this
realization : intense love for my German-Austrian home
and deep hatred against the Austrian State.

The choice of a profession had to be decided on
quicker than I had expected. Poverty and Stern rcality
forced me to m^ake a rapid decision. My faniily's small
means were nearly exhausted by my mother’s severe
illness ; the pension which came to me as an orphan
was not enough to live on, so that I was forced to earn
my living somehow myself.

With a valise full of clothes and linen I went to
Vienna full of determination. I hoped to ward off
fate, as my father had succeeded in doing 50 years
before. I wanted to become something—but in any
case, not an official.

CHAPTER II

MY STUDIES AND STRUGGLES IN VIENNA

TN Vienna amazing riches and degrading poverty
1 were mixed together in violent contrast. In the
central parts of the city one feit the pulse of the Empire
with its 25 millions, with all the dangerous charm o
that State of many nationalities. The dazzhng bri -
liancy of the Court attracted the wealth and mtelhgence
of the rest of the Empire like a magnet, to which was
added the strong centralizing policy of the Habsburg

This offered the only possibih^y of holdmg that hash
of nations together. The result was an extraordinary
concentration of all authority in the Capital.

Moreover, Vienna was not only pohtically and
intellectually the centre of the old Danube Moriarchy,
but it was also the centre of administration. Besides
the host of high officers, State officials, artists and Pro¬
fessors, there was a still greater host of workers, and
crushing poverty side by side with the wealth of the
aristocracy and merchant dass. Thousands of unem-
ployed hung about the palaces of the Ringstrasse, and
below that via triumphalis those who had no homes
crowded in the dinginess and filth of the canals.

Social questions could hardly be studied m any
German town better than in Vienna. But let there be
no mistake. This studying cannot be done from above.
No one who is not caught up in the coils of this poisonous
snake can get to know its poison fangs ; the others
exhibit nothing but superficial chatter and false senti-
mentality. Both do harm. The first because it can
never penetrate to the kernal of the question, the second

20

iMY STRUGGLE

21

l>c('ause it misses it. I do not know which is the more
(Icsolating : to ignore the social needs, as do most of
die lucky ones and those who have risen by their own
<-ll'orts, or the supercilious and intrusively tactless,
(liough always kindly, condescension of certain fashion-
.iblc ladies, who are by way of sympathizing with the

I x-ople. These certainly sin more from lack of instinct
tlian they can possibly understand. Thus they are
.islonished to find that the results of their readiness for
social work are always nil and often produce violent
.iiitagonism ; it is held up as a proof of the people’s

II igratitude.

Such minds refuse to understand that social work
is beside the point and, above all, must not look for
gratitude, since it is not a question of distributing
favours, but of restoring rights.

I perceived even then that in this case a twofold
inethod was the only way to improve matters ; namely,

;i deep feeling of social responsibility for creating better
jirinciples for our development, combined with ruthless
(letermination to destroy excrescences which could not
lie remedied.

Just as Nature concentrates not on maintaining what
(^xists, but on cultivating new growth in order to carry
on the species, so in human life we may not exalt the
(‘xisting evil, which, owing to the nature of man, is
impossible in ninety-nine cases out of a hundred, but
assure better methods for future development from the
Start.

Düring my struggle for existence in Vienna I per¬
ceived clearly that the social task may never consist of
welfare work, which is both ridiculous and useless, but .
rather in removing the deep-seated mistakes in the
Organization of our economic and cultural life, which
are bound to end in degradation of the individual, or
at least may lead him astray.

Since the Austrian State practically ignored social

22

MY STRUGGLE

legislation altogether, its inability to aboiish evil
excrescences loomed large before one’s eyes.

I do not know what most appalled me at that
period—the economic misery of our fellow-workers,
their moral crudity, or the low level of their spiritual
development.

Does our bourgeoisie not often rise in moral Indig¬
nation when it learns from the mouth of some wretched
tramp that he does not care whether he is a German
or not, that it is all the same to him so long as he has
enough to keep him alive? They at once protest
loudly at such want of “national pride” ; and their
horror at such sentiments finds strong expression.

• But how many really ask themselves why they
themselves have a better sentiment ? How many
understand the many reminders of the greatness of the
Fatherland, their nation, in all domains of cultural
and artistic life, which combine to give them legitimate
pride in being members of a nation so highly favoured ?
How many of them are aware how greatly pride in the
Fatherland depends on knowledge of its greatness in all
these domains ?

I then leamed to understand quickly and com-
pletely something which I had never been aware of
before :

The question of “nationalizing” a people is first
and foremost one of creating healthy social conditions
as a foundation for the possibility of educating the
individual. For only when a man has learned through
education and schooling to know the cultural, economic,
and above all the political greatness of his own Father-
land can he, and will he, gain that inner pride in
being permitted to be a member of such a nation. I
can fight only for what I love, love only what I
respect, and respect only what I, at any rate, know
about.

Now that my interest in social questions was

MY STRUGGLE

23

A new

(tw.ikened, I began to study them thoroughly.

.111(1 unknown world revealed itself to me.

In the years 1909-10 I had so far improved my
(oiulition as not to have to earn my daily bread as
.111 assistant worker. I was working independently as
.1 (Iraughtsman and painter in water-colours.

The psyche of the mass of the people is not receptive
of anything savouring of half-measures and weakness.

Like a woman whose sensibilities are influenced less
by abstract reasoning than by an undefinable longing
governed by feeling, for the strength which completes
what is to be done, and who would rather bow to the
sirong man than dominate the weakling, the people
love a ruler more than a suppliant and feel more
iiiwardly satisfied by doctrines which suffer no rival,
ilian by an admission of liberal freedom ; they have
vcry little idea how to use it and easily feel forsaken.
Tliey are as little conscious of the shame of being
.spiritually terrorized as of an abuse of their freedom as
liurnan beings, calculated to drive them into revolt ;
iior are they aware of any intrinsic wrongness in the
icaching. They only see the ruthless strength and
l)rutality of its determined utterances, to which they
always bow in the end.

If a doctrine, superior in truth but ruthless in
l)ractice, is set up against Social Democracy, that
doctrine will win, however severe the struggle.

Before two years had passed the doctrine of Social
Democracy became clear to me, as also its use as a
|iractical instrument.

Since Social Democracy well knows the value of
strength from its own experience, it usually attacks
ihose in whom it scents something of that element,
which is, moreover, so rare. On the other hand, it
cxtols any weakling on the opposing side, at first
cautiously, then more boldly, according as his qualities
are recognized or imagined.

EM

24

MY STRUGGLE

It fears a powerless, purposeless nature less ^ than
strong will, even though its mentality may be indif-

fcrcnt.

It knows how to make it seem that it alone has the
secret of peace and tranquillity, whilst it cautiously but
unflinchingly conquers one position after another,
either by silent pressure or by downright robbery at
moments when public attention is being directed to
other matters, is unwilling to be disturbed or thinks^ the
aflfair too paltiy to call for much attention or for it to
be advisable to irritate the dangerous adversary afresh.

These are tactics calculated absolutely on the sum
of human weakness, and their result is a mathematical
certainty, unless the other side also learns how to fight

poison gas with poison gas.

Weak natures have to be told that it is a case ot

“to be or not to be”.

Intimidation in workshops and factories, at meetings
and mass demonstrations, is always accompanied by
success so long as it is not met by an equally powerful
force of intimidation.

Poverty, which overtook the workers sooner or later,
drove them into the camp of Social Democracy.^

Since on countless occasions the bourgeoisie, not
only most stupidly but most immorally made common
cause against the most legitimate of human demands,
often without getting or expecting profit for them-
selves thereby, workmen, even the most disciplined,
were driven out of the Trades Union organization into

politics.

By the time that I was twenty years old I had
learned to distinguish between the Trades Union as an
instrument for defending the social rights of the employec
and for fighting for better living conditions for him,
and the Union as a party instrument in the political

dass war.

MY STRUGGLE

25

The fact that Social Democracy realized the immense
importance of the Trades Union movement gave it the
instrument and assured its success ; the bourgeoisie
liiiled to realize it and so lost their political position.
Tlicy thought that contemptuous refusal to let it develop
logically would give it its quietus and would really force
il into illogical paths. For it is absurd and also untrue
(hat the Trades Union movement is essentially hostile
1(1 the Fatherland ; the opposite is the more correct
view. If Trades Union action aims at improving the
condition of a dass which is one of the pillars of the
iiation, and succeeds in doing so, its action is not
against the Fatherland or the State, but is “national”
in the truest sense of the word. In that way it helps
Io forge social principles, without which general national
cducation is unthinkable. It earns the highest merit,
for, by eradicating social cankers, it attacks the causes
)f disease, both mental and bodily, and so adds to the
general welfare of the nation.

As far as essentials are concerned, the question is
really a superfluous one.

So long as there are amongst employers men with
little social understanding or wrong ideas of justice and
fairness, it is not only the right, but the duty of their
cmployees, who, after all, form a part of our population,
to protect the Interests of the whole against the greed
or unreasonableness of the individual ; for to keep
loyalty and faith alive in the mass of the people is to the
nation’s interests, just as much as keeping them healthy.

If unsocial or unworthy treatment of men provokes
resistance, then, until the lawful judicial authorities are
prepared to do away with the evil, this struggle can
only be decided by the side which is strongest. It is
evident, moreover, that the individual employer, sup-
ported by the concentrated strength of his business,
may have to face the united body of employees, if he is
not to be compelled to give up any hope of victory
from the very Start.

26

MY STRUGGLE

In the course of a few decades, under the expert
hand of Social Democracy, the Trades Union movement
grew from being the means for protecting the social
rights of man into an instrument for laying national
economics in ruins. The interests of the workers were
not going to count at all with the promoters of this
object. For in politics the use of economic pressure
always permits extortion, whenever one side is suf-
ficiently unscrupulous and the other has sufficient
stupid, sheepish patience.

By the beginning of this Century the Trades Union
movement had long ceased to serve its earlier purpose.
With each succeeding year it feil more and more under
the influence of social democratic politics and ended
by being used merely as the battering ram for the

dass war.

Instead of opposing this by taking the offensive, the
bourgeoisie submitted to being pressed and harried,
and ended by adopting utterly inadequate measures,
which, being taken too late, were ineffective and were
easily repulsed owing to their weakness. So all really
remained as it was, but the discontent was more serious
than before.

The “free Trades Union” lowered over the political
horizon and over each man’s life like a threatening
storm-cloud.

It was one of the most terrible Instruments of
intimidation against security and national indepen-
dence, the solidity of the State and individual
freedom.

It was, above all, that which turned the idea of
democracy into a repellant and derisory phrase, brought
shame to liberty and mocked at brotherhood in the
words : “If you won’t join us we will crack your skull
for you”.

I learned then something about this “friend of man”.
As years went on my opinions widened and deepened,
but I never found reason to alter them.

MY STRUGGLE

27

1

As I obtained more insight into the externals of
Social Democracy, my longing increased to understand
the inner kernel of its doctrines.

The official literature of the Party was nearly use-
less for my purpose. When dealing with economic
questions its assertions and arguments are incorrect,
and as regards the political aim they are fallacious.
Hence I feit intensely repelled by the modern petti-
fogging methods of expression and writing.

Finally I learned the connection between this
doctrine of destruction and the character of a race
which until then was almost unknown to me.

Understanding of the Jews is the only key to com-
prehension of the inner, and therefore real, aims of
Social Democracy.

Comprehension of that race is to raise the veil of
false conceptions regarding the objects and meaning of
this party, and the nonsense of Marxism rises grimacing
out of the fog and mist of social phrases.

It is difficult, if not impossible, today, for me to
say when the word “Jew” first began to suggest special
ideas to me. I have no recollection of having even
heard the word at home during my father’s lifetime.
I think the old gentleman would have seen it as an
antiquated culture, if he mentioned the term in any
special way. His views during his life were more or
less those of a citizen of the world, and were combined
in him with a strong feeling of nationality which had
its effect on me as well.

In school, too, I found no reason leading me to
alter the picture I had received at home.

At the Realschule I got to know a Jewish boy, whom
we all treated with much consideration ; but having
learned something by various experiences with regard
to his reticence we did not particularly trust him.

It was not tili I was fourteen or fifteen years old that
I frequently met the word “Jew”, partly in connection

28

MY STRUGGLE

MY STRUGGLE

29

with political talk. I then took a slight dislike to it, fl
and could not escape an uncomfortabie feeling which 1*
came over me when religious difFerences were discussed j
in my presence. At that time I saw the qiiestion in no 1
other aspect. |

Linz possessed very few Jews. Throughout the
centuries they had become European in externals and
like other people ; in fact, I looked on them as
Germans. The wrongness of this conception was not
clear to me, since the only distinguishing mark I saw ’
in them was their unfamiüar religion. As I thought
they were persecuted on that account, my aversion to
remarks in their disfavour almost grew into abhorrence.

Of the existence of deliberate Jewish hostility I had no
conception.

Then I arrived in Vienna.

Being confused by the mass of architectural impres-
sions and crushed by the hardness of my own lot, I
was at first unaware of the stratifications of the people <

within that immense city. Although Vienna then 1

counted something like two hundred thousand Jews |

amongst its population of two millions, I failed to see
them. Düring the first weeks my eyes and mind were
unable to take in the rush of values and ideas. Not tili
I gradually became calmer and the confused Images |

began to get clearer did I obtain a deeper view of this 1

new World and come up against the Jewish question. |

I will not say that the way in which I was to make j

acquaintance with them was very pleasant to me. I |

still saw Jewry as a religion, and therefore, for reasons 1

of human tolerance, I still disliked attacking them on |

religious grounds. Thus I considered that the tone,
especially that adopted by the anti-semitic Press in ;
Vienna, unworthy of the cultural traditions of a great
nation. I was oppressed by the memory of certain ]
events in the Middle Ages, which I would not care to 1
see repeated. Since the newspapers in question had
not a high reputation in general—how this came about

I iicver knew then exactly—I regarded them more as a
product of jealous rage than the result of genuine, if
wrong-headed, opinion.

My own opinions were fortified by what seemed to
me the infinitely more dignified forms in which the
really great Press replied to those attacks or silently
ignored them altogether—which occurred to me as
hcing even more worthy of rcspect.

I read the so-called world-press diligently {J\eiie
Freie Presse^ Wiener Tageblatt^ etc.). I was constaiiüy
f’cpelled by the unworthy way in which these papers
curried favour with the Court. Scarcely any event at
ilic Hofburg failed to be reported in tones of enchanted
enthusiasm or blatant publicity, a foolish practice, which,
cven if it had to do with the ‘‘wisest Monarch^’ of all
liines, was almost equal to the behaviour of an Auerhahn
(capercailzie) when mating.

I considered it a blemish on Liberal Democracy.

In Vienna I continued, as before, to follow all events
in Germany with fiery enthusiasm, whether they con-
( crned political or cultural questions. With proud
admiration I compared the rise of the Empire with the
(Iccadence of the Austrian State. But if the events of
Ibreign policy caused me solid pleasure, on the whole,
1 was often distressed by the political life at home,
which was not so satisfactory. The campaign against
William II did not meet with my approval. I regarded
liim not only as the German Emperor, but above all, as
the creator of a German Navy. The fact that the
Reichstag forbade the Emperor to make speeches
therefore infuriated me, because the prohibition came
from a quarter which, in my eyes, really had no com-
petence to do so, and yet during a single sitting those
parliamentary ganders put together more nonsensical
chatter than a whole dynasty of emperors, even the
weakest of them, could do during centuries.

It enraged me that in a State in which aiiy fool

30

MY STRUGGLE

could Claim the right to criticize and was actuallylet
loose on the nation as a ‘‘lawgiver” in thc Reichstag,
the wearer of the Imperial Crown could be repri-
manded by the most insipid and absurd institution of
all time.

I was even more disgusted that the Vienna Press,
which bowed respectfully before the lowest of the low,
if he belonged to the Court, now, with a pretence of
anxiety, but, as I saw it, with hardly disguised hostility,
gave expression to its objection to the German Emperor.

I was obliged to admit that one of the anti-semitic
papers, the Deutsche Volksblatt^ behaved with more
decency in connection with the same subject.

The nauseating manner in which the more influential
Press toadied to France was also on my nerves. One
had to be ashamed to be a German when observing
those dulcet hymns in praise of the “great culture-
nation^’. The wretched pandering to France more
than once made me throw dowm those “world-journals’*.
I would then turn to the Volksblatt, w^hich seemed to
me to take a somewhat cleaner, if sm aller, view of these
matters. I did not agree with its sharply anti-semitic
tone, but I now and again read in it arguments which
caused me some reflection.

In any case, I learned slowly from such suggestions
about the man and the Movement which then decided
the fate of Vienna : Dr. Karl Lueger and the Christian-
Socialist Party.

When I arrived in Vienna I was hostile to both.
In my eyes the man and the Movement were “reac-
tionary’’.

Once when I was walking through the inner city I
suddenly came across a being in a long caftan with
black side-locks. My first thought was : Is that a
Jew ? In Linz they did not look like that. I watched
the man stealthily and cautiously, but the longer I
stared at that stränge countenance and studied it feature

MY STRUGGLE

31

l»y feature, the more the question in a different form
hinied in my brain : Is that a German ?

As always on such occasions, I proceeded to try and
Kiiiove my doubts by means of books. For the first
liiiic in my life I bought some anti-semitic pamphlets
lur a few heller. Unfortunately these assumed that the
i(‘ader had at least some knowledge or understanding
<»l* the Jewish question. Finally, the tone of most of
ilicm was such that I again feil into doubt, because the
.iNsertions in them were supported by such flimsy and
nnscientific arguments.

The subject appeared so vast and the study of it so
rndless that, tortured by the fear of doing an injustice,

I again became anxious and unsure of myself.

I could not well continue to doubt that here it was
a matter not of Germans of another religion, but of a
nrparate nation ; for as soon as I began to study the
«juestion and take notice of the Jews, Vienna appeared
(o me in another light. Now, wherever I w^nt, I saw
Jews, and the more I saw, the more strikingly and
(»hviously were they different from other people. The
inner city and the parts North of the Danube Canal
«‘spccially swarmed with a population which bore no
similarity with the Germans.

But though I might still have doubts, my hesitations
were dispelled by the attitude of a section of the Jews
I licinselves.

A great Movement arose amongst them, which was
vsldeiy represented in Vienna, in strong favour of
.isserting the national character of Judaism ; this w'as
/ionism.

It certainly looked as if only a section of the Jews
would approve of this attitude, and that a large majority
would condemn, in fact, frankly reject, the principle.
()n nearer observation, however, this appearance
i<‘solved itself into an evil mist of theories, produced
piirely for reasons of expedience—lies, in fact. For the
o-called Liberal Jew disowned the Zionists not as

MY STRUGGLE

32

being non-Jews, but simply as Jews of a creed which
was unpractical, nay, perhaps, even dangerous, for
their own Judaism.

But there was no alteration in their internal
solidarity.

The seeming discord between the Zionists and
Liberal Jews quickly sickened me ; it seemed ungenuine
through and through and all a lie ; and, moreover,
unworthy of the ever-vaunted moral elevation and
purity of that nation.

Judaism sufFered a heavy set-back in my eyes when
I got to know of its activities in the Press, in art, litera-
ture and the drama. Unctuous protestations were no
good any more now. One only had to look at their
posters and study the names of the inspired creators of
those hideous inventions for the cinema and the theatre
which one saw commended on them, in order to become
permanently hardened. It was pestilence, spiritual
pestilence, worse than the Black Death, with which the

nation was being inoculated.

I began to study carefully the names of all the
creators of these unclean products of the artistic life as
given to the people. The result was increasingly
damaging to the attitude I had taken up hitherto in
regard to the Jews. Though my feelings might rise
against it a thousand times, my reasoii had to draw its
own conclusions.

Then I began to examine my favourite ‘'world

press” from the same point of view.

I saw the Liberal tendencies of that Press in another
light ; its dignified tone in replying to attacks, its
complete ignoring of them were now revealed to me
as a cunning, mean trick ; their brilliantly written
theatrical critiques always favoured Jewish authors, and
their adverse criticism was given to Germans alone.
Their light pin-pricks against William II showed the
consistency of their methods, as did also their com-
mendation of French culture and civilization. "Ihe

MY STRUGGLE

33

g<‘iicral sense was so clearly to depreciate everything
(h'rman that it could only be intentional.

Now that I realized the Jews as the leaders of Social
I )<anocracy, scales, as it were, began to fall from my
<‘y€S. My long mental struggle was at an end.

I gradually realized that the Social-democratic
l*rcss was preponderantly controlled by Jews. I attached
110 particular importance to this circumstance by itself,
l)iit it was exactly the same with the other newspapers.
but there was one striking fact ; there was not a single
piiper with which Jews were connected which could be
(Icscribed as genuinely national in the sense that my
c-ducation and opinions had taught me.

I got over my reluctance and tried to read this sort
()I* Marxian stuff in the Press, but my dislike of it intensi-
(i(‘d as I read ; I now tried to get acquainted with the
Compilers of that mass of knavery ; from the editors
(lownwards they were all Jews.

I seized all the Social-democratic pamphlets I could
gct hold of and looked up the names of their authors
-nothing but Jews. I noted the names of nearly all
ihc leaders, the great majority were equally members
of the “chosen people” ; whether they were members
of the Reichrat or secretaries of Trades Unions, chair-
mcn of organizations or Street agitators, the same
sinister picture was presented. The names of Auster¬
litz, David, Adler, Ellenbogen, etc., will ever remain
in my memory.

One thing now became clear to me ; the leader-
sliip of the Party, with whose minor supporters I had
bcen fighting hard for months, was almost entirely in
the hands of a foreign race, for to my inward satis-
faction I knew finally that the Jew was no German.

It was only now that I thoroughly understood the
coiTupter of our nation.

The more I contended with them the more I learned
(o know their dialectical methods. They began by

c

MY STRUGGLE

34

relying on the stupidity of their opponents, and if that
was unsuccessful they theinselves would pretend
stupidity. If that was no good, they would refuse to
take in what was said or promptly leap to another
subject, and they came out with truisms, which, when
agreed to, they made to refer to something quite dif¬
ferent ; then, once again on their own ground, they
would weaken and pretend to have no precise know-
ledge. Wherever one attacked such apostles, one’s
hand met foul slime. If one smote one of them s(^
crushingly that, with the bystanders looking on, he had
no course but to agree, and if one thought one had
gained at least one Step, he merely showed great
astonishment the next day. The Jew entirely forgot
what had been said the day before and repeated his
shameful old stor^’ as if nothing had happened, pre-
tended anger and amazement and forgetfulness of
everything except that the debate had proved the truth
of his assertions.

I was often left staring. One did not know which
to admire most—their glibness or their artfulness in
lying. I gradually began to hate them.

All this had one good side. In the sphere in which
the Carriers, or at least the propagators, of Social
Democracy came under rny eye, my love for my own
national inevitably increased.

Under the inducement of my everyday experience,
I now began to seek out the sources of the Marxian
doctrine. Its workings were clear to me in individual
instances ; my observant eye daily marked its suc-
cesses, and with a little imagination I was able to figure
out the consequences of it. The only remaining
question was whether its founders enjoyed the results of
their creation, as seen in its most recent form, or whether
they themselves were the victims of an error.

Thus I began to make myself acquainted with the
founders of the doctrine in order to study the principles

MY STRUGGLE

35

ol’ the Movement. The fact that I achieved my object
<|iiicker than I dared to hope at first was thanks to the
kiiowledge I had gained of the Jewish question, though
.it that time it had not gone very deep. Nothing but
(hat made possible to me a practical comparison of its
rcalities with the theoretic Claims of the first apostles
of Social Democracy, since it had taught me to under-
siand the verbal methods of the Jewish people, whose
.lim it is to hide, or at least cloak, their ideas ; their
real objective is not to be read on the lines, but is
(ucked away well concealed between them.

It was at this time that the greatest change took
place in me that I was ever to experience. From being
a feeble world citizen, I became a fanatical anti-
seniite.

Düring my study of the influence of the Jewish
iiation throughout long periods of human history, the
gloomy question suddenly occurred to me whether
possibly inscrutable destiny, for reasons unknown to us
poor mortals, had not decreed the final victory of that
little nation. But this question was answered in the
negative by the Jewish doctrine itself.

The Jewish doctrine of Marxism rejects the aristo-
cratic principle in nature, and in place of the eternal
privilege of force and strength sets up the mass and
dead weight of numbers. It thus denies the value of
the individual among men, combats the importance of
nationality and race, thereby depriving humanity of
the whole meaning of its existence and Kultur. It
would, therefore, as a principle of the Universe, conduce
to an end of all order conceivable to mankind. And
as in that great discernable organism nothing but chaos
could result from the application of such a law, so on
this earth would ruin be the only result for its inhabi-
tants.

If the Jew, with the help of his Marxian creed,
conquers the nations of this world, his crown will be
the funeral wreath of the human race, and the planet

MY STRUGGLE

36

will drive through the ether once again empty of man-
kind as it did millions of years ago.

Eternal nature takes inexorable rever^gc on any
Usurpation of her realm.

Thus did I now bclieve that I must act in the scnse
of the Almighty Creator : By defending myself against
the Jews I am doing the Lord’s work.

r

CHAPTER III

POLITICAL CONSIDERATIONS RESULTING FROM MY

TIME IN VIENNA

I )OLITIGAL thought in general was grcater and
more comprehensive in ränge in the old Danube
Monarchy than in Germany itself during the same
|)(‘riod—with the exception of Prussia, Hamburg and
ilie North Sea Coast. By “Austria” I mean, for this
piirpose, that parts of the great Habsburg Empire,
wliich, as a result of being settled by Germans, exhibited
In every respect not only the historical forces in the
loi mation of that State, but also in its population, those
(•ajiable of supplying that creation, politically so arti-
licial, with its inner cultural life in the course of many
I rnturies. As time advanced, the life and destiny of
(hat State depended more and more on keeping alive
iliis seed-cell of the Empire.

The fact that the collection of races, called “Austria”,
was finally destroyed does not in the least imply political
incompetence of the Germans of the old Ostmark, but
il, was the inevitable result of the impossibility of main-
taining permanently a State of fifty millions, consisting
of different races, with the help of ten millions, unless
absolutely definite principles werc established in good
lime.

The German-Austrian was always used to living
within the bounds of a great Empire, and had never
lost the feeling of the duties which this involved. In
(hat State he alone, when looking beyond the frontiers
of the narrower Crown land, thought of them as the
Cfontiers of an Empire. Though, indeed, it was his
Täte to be separated from the common Fatherland, he

37

38

MY S.TRUGGLE

ever sought to master the immense task and to keep
for Germanv what his ancestors had once wrested from
the East in their age-long struggies. In heart and
memory the best men never ceased to be in sympathy
with the common mother country—and yet but a
shred of their home-land remained theirs.

The circle of vision of the German-Austrian was
wider than that of the rest of the Empire. His economic
relations frequently embraced almost the whole of the
composite Empire. Almost all really large enterprises
were in his hands. He supplied most of the leadin^
technical experts and officials. Moreover, he carried
on the trade abroad, in so far as the Jews had not laid
hands on that domain which had been his of old time.
The German-Austrian recruit might perhaps enter a
German regiment, but that regiment might be as likely
to be stationed in Herzegovina as in Vienna or Galicia.
The corps of officers continued to be German, the
higher officials preponderantly so. Art and Science
were German. Leaving out the more recent artistic
developments, which might simply be the production
of a negro race, the possessor and diffuser of true
artistic ideas was the German, and the German only.
In music, architecture, sculpture and painting Vienna
was the source which supplied the whole Dual
Monarchy in an inexhaustible stream. with no appear-
ance of ever drying up.

Finally, the whole bürden of foreign policy was
borne by Germans, although a few Hungarians inay be
included in the number.

Thus any attempt to maintain this Empire was in
vain, since the essentials were absent.

In the Austrian Empire of races there was only one
possible way of defeating the centrifugal tendencies of
individual nations ; the State either must be governed
from the centre and organized internally to that end—
or it was inconceivable.

In occasional lucid intervals the Emperor perceived

MY STRUGGLE

39

iliis, but it was soon forgotten, or shelved as being
«liHicult to carry out.

In Germany the Reich, though composed of small,
disconnected atoms, only contained members of a
uingle race. In Austria conditions were otherwise.

In the various countries, apart from Hungary, there
wcie no memories of a great past, or perhaps thepassing
nf time had extinguished them ; at any rate, they were
<11111 and blurred. But in their place during the period
of (he principle of nationality populär forces developed
in (hose countries, all the harder to circumvent at a
liiiie when national States began to be formed on the
i'dgcs of the Monarchy, the peoples of which, being
I .icially related or identical with nationalities in Austria,
wcr*e in a position to exert more attraction than German
Austria possibly could.

Even Vienna failed to stand up to this struggle.

ln Buda Pest, which had developed into a Capital
< ily, Vienna was for the first time faced by a rival
wliose task it was not so much to weld the whole
Monarchy together, as to strengthen one part of it.
Soon Prague was to follow Buda Pest’s example, then
Lemberg, Laibach, and other centres.

Ever since the death of Joseph II (1790) the course
«)!' this process could be clearly traced. Its speed
dcpcnded on a number of factors, which lay partly
in the Monarchy itself, but were in other respects the
rcsult of the Empire’s political position at various times
lowards foreign countries.

If the struggle to maintain this State was to be taken
wp seriously and fought to a fmish, ruthless and con-
sistent centralization alone could attain the object.
but homogeneity in form must be expressed by estab-
liolunent in principle of a unified State language, and
ilic technical Instrument for this had to be forced into
(he hands of the administration, for without it a unified

40

MY STRUGGLE

State could not endure. The only way, moreover, of
producing uniform and permanent State consciousness
was through the schools and education. It could not
be achieved in ten or twenty years, but one had to
think in centuries, for, as in all questions of colonization,
steadfastness of purpose is of greater importance than
spasmodic effort.

The Austrian Empire was not composed of similar
races and was held together not by common blood, but
rather by a common fist. This being so, weakness in
the leadership would not lead necessarily to torpor in^^
the State, but would arouse all the Individualist instincts,
due to race, which are deterred from developing in
times when there is a will predominating.

Failure to comprehend this is perhaps the tragic
crime of the House of Habsburg.

x\t one period fate held her torch once more
high over the land ; then it was extinguished for
ever.

Joseph II, Roman Emperor over the German
nation, realized with poignant anxiety how his House
was being thrust into the uttermost corner of the
Empire and was bound to founder in the vortex of a
Babylon of races unless the shortcomings of his pre-
decessors were made good at the eleventh hour. That
“friend of man” set out with superhuman energy to
repair the neglect of previous rulers and tried to recover
in ten years what had been let slip for centuries. His
successors were unequal to the task either in mind or
will-power.

The Revolution of 1848 was perhaps a struggle of
classes everywhere, but in Austria it was the commence-
ment of a fresh struggle of nationalities. But the
German, either forgetting or not realizing that origin,
placcd himself at the Service of the revolutionär^ move¬
ment, and he sealed his own fate by so doing. He
played his part in arousing the spirit of world

MY STRUGGLE

41

.Irmocracy, which in a short time robbed him of the
piinciples underlying his own existence.

'l'he formation of a representative parliamentary
liody, without previous establishment of the principle
< •!' a common State language, laid the foundation stone
nf tlie end of the predominance of the German race ;
lind from that moment the State itself was bound for
drslruction. What then followed was the historical
rvolution of an Empire.

I have no wish to wander off into details, since that
IS not the object of this book. I wish merely to assemble
Inf the purpose of closcr consideration those events
which, being always constant as the causes of decadence
III iiations and States, possess significance for our epoch,
.111(1 which helped finally to settle the principles of my
IMilitical thought.

Amongst the institutions which might have indicated
(11 the ordinary citizen, even if not blessed with sharp
eyes, that the Monarchy was disintegrating, the chief
was that one which ought to have chosen strength as
its (essential quality—Parliament, or, as it was called in
Austria, the Reichsrat.

It is manifest that the Parliament of England, the
l.md of “classic” democracy, was the parent of that
hody. That blessed Institution was transplanted thence
111 its entirety and established in Vienna with as little
.1 Iteration as possible.

The English two-Chamber System inaugurated its
iicw life in the Abgeordnetenhaus and Herrenhaus. But the

I louses themselves were somewhat different. When
Biirry’s Houses of Parliament sprang, as it were, from
du; waters of the Thames, he drew from the history of

I I le British world Empire inspiration for the ornamenta-
lion for the 1,200 niches, brackets and pillars of his
iiiagnificent edifice. Thus, with their sculptures and
paintings, the Houses of the Lords and Commons
bccame the temple of the nation’s glory.

42

MY STRUGGLE

Here was Vienna’s first difficulty. For when the
Dane, Hansen, had completed the last pinnacle of the
marble palace for the people’s representatives, his only
course was to try to Ornament it with subjects derived
from the Antique. Greek and Roman statesmen and
philosophers embellish that theatrical edifice of‘‘Western
Democracy’’, and with symbolic irony the quadrigae
on the top of the buildings are driving away from each
other towards the four qiiarters of the heavens, thus
perfectly symbolizing the divergent tendencies inside.

The nationalities would have taken it as an insult^
and a provocation if Austrian history had been glorified
in that work, just as in the German Empire it was not
until the thunder of battle was heard in the World
War that they had dared consecrate Paul Wallot’s
Reichstag building in Berlin with an inscription, “ 7 ö
the German People^ \

Tlie destiny of the German race in the Austrian
State was dependent on their strength in the Reichsrat.
Up to the time when universal suffrage and the secret
ballot w^ere introduced, there was still a German majority
in Parliament. This condition of affairs was specially
objectionable because, owing to the unreliable behaviour
of Social Democracy in a national sense, the latter
always came forward in Opposition to the German
interest in critical questions afiecting the German race
—in Order to avoid estranging its adherents amongst the
various foreign races. Even then the Social Democrats
could no longer be regarded as a German party. After
universal suffrage was brought in the German superiority
ceased even as a numerical majority. There was
nothing now in the way of further de-Germanization of
the State.

The desire for national self-preservation, therefore,
led me to feel but little enthusiasm for populär repre-
sentation, in which the German race was always being
betrayed instead of being represented. Moreover, these
were evils which, like so many others, were attributable

MY STRUGGLE

43

iini to the thing in itself, but to the Austrian State. In
{he early days I still thought that, if the German
majority were restored in the representative bodies,
liiere would be no occasion to go on with my Opposition
nii principle, so long as the old State continued to exist.

It took but little time to arouse my indignation
vvlicn I saw the miserable comedy which was being
iml'olded before my eyes.

Democracy in the West to-day is the forerunner of
Marxism, which would be inconceivable wdthout Demo-
< i.K'.y, It is the feeding-ground of that world pestilence
which is enabled to develop there. In its outward form
nl expression—the Parliamentary System—it appeared
as “a monstrosity of filth and fire’’ {eine Spottgeburt am
Iheck und Feuer)^ in which, to my regret, tüe fire seemed

10 have burnt itself out only too quickly.

^ I am more than grateful to fortune for putting this

<|n(‘Stion before me in Vienna for examination, since 1
Ir.ir that in Germany I could not then have so easily
answered the question. If I had learned to know the
.ihsurditv of that Institution, called Parliament, for the
Inst time in Berlin, I might perhaps have fallen into
ilic opposite extreme, and with no apparent good
icason have ranged myself with those in whose eyes
ihc good of the People and Empire lay in exalting the
Imperial idea, and who thus set themselves blindly in
Opposition to mankind and the times.

In Austria that was impossible. It was not so easy
ih(‘re to slip from one mistake into another. If Parlia-
iiK'iit was worth nothing, the Habsburgers were worth
siill less—not more in anv case.

Parliament decides upon something, be the con-
scipience ever so devastating ; no single man is respon-
sible, no one can be called to account for it. For can

11 be called taking responsibility for a Government
which has done all the harm merely to retire from

44

MY STRUGGLE

office ? Or for the coalition to be changed, or even
for Parliament to dissolve ? For how can a varying
rnajority of men evcr be hcid responsible at all ? Is
not every conception of responsibility closely connected
with Personality ? But can one in practice indict the
leading personage in a Government for dealings, the
existence and carrying out of which is to be set down
solely to the account of the will and pleasure of a large
assemblage of men ?

Or—is the leading statesman’s task to consist not so
much in prodiicing a Creative thought or plan as in the
art with which he makes the genius of his proposal
comprehensive to a flock of silly sheep for the purpose
of imploring their final consent ? Must it Ibe the
criterion of a statesman that he must be as strong in
the art of persuasion as in that of statesmanlike skill in
the selection of great lines of conduct or decision ?

Do we believe that progress comes in this world
from the combined intelligence of the rnajority and not
from the brain of an individual ? Or do we imagine
that in future we can dispense with this conception of
human Kultur ?

Does it not, on the contrary, appear even more
necessary to-day than ever before ?

By its denial of the authority of the individual and
its Substitution of the sum of the mass present at any
given times, the parliamentary principle of the consent
of the rnajority sins against the basic aristocratic prin¬
ciple in nature, in which Connection its view of the
higher classes need in no way be bound up with the
present-day decadence of our Upper Ten Thousand.

It is difficult for a reader of Jewish newspapers to
imagine the evils involved in this modern institution of
democratic control by Parliament, unless he has learned
to think and examine for himselfi It has been the
primal cause why all our political life has been so
unbelievably flooded with all that is most worthless.
So long as the true leaders are withdrawn from political

MY STRUGGLE

45

<H hv'itics, which consist chiefly not in Creative work and
IMiwIiiction, but in haggling and bargaining for the

l. ivniirs of a rnajority, so long will these activities be in
h.iiinony with low mentalities, and will also be an
»iiiijction to them.

One thing we must and may never forget : a
Mi.ijorlty can never be a substitute for the Man. It is
iilw .iys the advocate not only of stupidity, but also of

• «nv.'irdly policies ; and just as a hundred fools do not

m. ikc one wisc man, a heroic decision is not likely to

• oiiir from a hundred cowards.

'The result of it all is the terrific speed of the changes
in fhc most important positions and oflices in a State
iiH h as ours, a fact which is unfavourable in any case
.111(1 which frequently works with absolutely catastrophic
r(U('ls; for not only the stupid and inefficient fall
vKiiins to these methods of procedure, but the true
Ir.iders even more so, if and whenever fate manages to
nt \ such a character in that position.

So the result will ever increasingly be a spiritual
impoverishment of the leading classes. Anyone may
jiidvc what the result will be for the nation and the

I i t

.St.ilc.

Our ordinary conception of the expression, ‘^public
npiiiion’', depends only in a very small measure in our
nwii personal experiences or knowledge, but mainly,
(Ul ihe other hand, on what we are told ; and this is
jursented to us in the form of so-called “enlightenment”,
I». rsistent and emphatic. The political vision of the
muss perceives the final result only of what has frequently
l»rrn a tough and searching strugglc of the soul and
iiilrllcct.

I'ar the most cffective share in the political ‘‘educa-
tfoii”, which in this case is very appropriately named
*'l)»‘opaganda”, is that which falls to the Press, which
lukes on itself the “work of enlightenment” and thus
( Is up a kind of school for grown-ups, as it were. This

MY STRUGGLE

46

instruction is, however, not in the hands of the State,
but is gripped by forces for the most part very inferior
in character. As a young man in Vienna, I had the
best opportunities for getting a knowledge of the owners
and clever craftsmen of that machine for mass education.
At the Start I could but wonder at the short time it had
taken for that evil power in the State successfully to
create a definite public opinion, in spite of the fact that
it might involve a deceitful reversal of the public’s real
desires and views. In a few days this absurdity became
a State act of great consequence, whilst at the same
time essential problems feil into general oblivion, or
rather they were stolen away from the memor^ and
attention of the masses.

Thus in the course of a few weeks names were suc¬
cessfully conjured up out of nothing, and incredible
hopes were connected with them in the public mind ;
they were given a popularity which a really great man
could never hope to attain in the whole course of his
life—names which a month before no one had even
heard of; whereas old and trusted characters in public
and State life died in the height of their efficiency as far
as their contemporaries were concerned, or were over-
whelmed with such abuse that their names seemed
likely soon to become Symbols of infamy. It was neces-
sary to study this shameful Jewish method of simul-
taneousness and from hundreds and hundreds of
directions, as if by an incantation, pouring filth in the
shape of slander and defamation on the clean garb of
honourable men, in order to estimate the full menace
of these scoundrels in the Press at its right value.

We shall most quickly and easily grasp that sense-
less and dangerous human aberration if we compare
the democratic parliamentary System with true Ger-
manic Democracy.

The point most remarkable in the first is that a
number, say five hundred, men are elected, who are

MY STRUGGLE

47

I .illrd upon to decide on every kind of issue. Inpractice,
ih(‘rcfore, they and they only are the Government, for
il .1 Cabinet is selected from their number, which, as
l.n IIS the country is concerned, undertake to control
iIm' business of the State, it is really on a pretence. The
Hi ) called Government can, as a matter of fact, take no
.H lion without first obtaining the consent of the general
.isscinblage. It cannot, however, be made responsible
loi ariything, since the final decision is never in its
li.inds, but in those of the parliamentary majority. It
* \isls merely to execute the will of the majority in all

I ,IS(‘S.

It is not the aim of our present-day Democracy to
liH in an assernblage of wise men, but rather to collect
ingcther a crowd of subservient nonentities, who can
c’.isily be led in certain definite directions, especially if
ili(‘ intelligence in each individual of them is limited.

( )iily thus can the game of Party politics be played in
iis unhealthy present-day sense. But it also makes it
pnssible for the real wire-pullers to remain safely in the
biickground, with no possibility of ever being made
|)( rsonally responsible. For now a decision, however
li.irmful to the nation, cannot be put to the account of
.11 ly one rascal who is in the public eye, whereas it
i AU always be transferred to the shoulders of a whole
H<‘c(ion.

Thus there is no responsibility in practice, for this
liability can rest on one individual only, and not on
.in assemblages of parliamentary chatterboxes.

That Institution can only be pleasing or profitable
Io mendacious crawlers who avoid the light of day, and

II must be hateful to any good, straightforward man
who is ready to take personal responsibility.

Hence this style of Democracy has become the
iiislrument of the race, which, in order to forward its
own aims, has to avoid the sunlight now and in all
luiure time. None but a Jew can value an Institution
w liich is as dirty and false as he is himselL

48

MY STRUGGLE

In contradistinction to the foregoing is the true
Germanic Democracy with free choice of the leader,
along with his Obligation to assume entire respon-
sibility for all he does and causes to be done. This
includes no majority note on individual questions, but
simply the decision of one who backs it with his life
and all that he has.

For anyone who objects to that, such being the
requirements, it would hardly be possible to find any¬
one ready to devote his person to tasks so risky, there
can be but one answer :

“God be thanked, the whole point of a German
Democracy is that any stray unworthy climber a^d
moral shirker cannot come in by the back stairs and
govern his fellow-countrymen, but that incompetents
and weaklings will be scared by the immensity of the
responsibility to be assumed.”

The parliamentary regime in the later years con-
tinuously contributed towards progressive weakening
of the old Habsburg State. As the predominance of
the German element was broken up by its agency, a
System grew up of playing off the nationalities one
against the other. But the general line of development
was directed against the Germans. In particular, from
the time when his heirship to the Throne began to
give the Archduke Francis Ferdinand a certain influence,
a deliberate scheme arose for increasing Czech influence,
which was the policy of thosc at the top. The future
ruler of the Dual Monarchy tried by eve^ means in
his power to give impetus to the de-Germanizing process
and to assist it himself, or at least favour it with his
protection. Thus purely German villages were,^ by
roundabout official means, slowly but surely thrust into
the danger-zone of mixed languages. In Lower Austria
itself the process was making more and more rapid
progress, and many of the Czechs considered Vienna
as their chief city.

MY STRUGGLE

49

Tlie preponderant thought of this new Habsburger,
whose family spoke Czech for choice (the Archduke’s
vvlfc had been a Czech countess and had married the
l’iiiice morganatically, and the circles in which she
w;is born were anti-German by tradition), was gradually
(o establish a Slav State in Central Europe, on strictly
(l.ilholic lines, to be a protection against Orthodox
Ktissia. In tliis way, as so frequently happened with
ilic Habsburgers, religion was once again dragged in to
sri ve a purely political conception—moreover, a bane-
111 1 one, when looked at from the German point of view.

The result was more than tragic in several respects.
Ncither the House of Habsburg nor the Catholic Church
pi-ofitcd by it as they had hoped.

Flabsburg lost the Throne, Rome a great State.

For by summoning- religious forces to serve its
political ends the Crown aroused a spirit which at the
•.i:u t it clearly thought to be an impossible one. The
.iKempt to stamp out Germanism in the old Monarchy
by every possible means was answered by the Pan-
(Jrrman movement in Austria.

After the War of 1870, the Flouse of Habsburg
•slowly but deliberately set to work with its last spark
of determination to root out the dangerous German
I .ice—for this was surely the aim of Slavophile policy—
.Old revolt flamed up in the nation, which was deter-
mitied to resist to the end in a way unknown in the
more recent history of Germany.

For the first time men of national and patriotic
f<•(‘ling turned into rebels—rebels not against the State
in itself, but against a System of government which,
ilicy were convinced, was bound to end by destroying
i(s character as a nation.

For the first time in later German history distinction
.irose between ordinary dynastic patriotism and national
love for Fatherland and People.

It should not be forgotten, as a general rule, that it
is not the highest aim of man’s existence to maintain a

D

i.

50

MY STRUGGLE

State or a government, but rather to conserve its

national character.

Human rights are above State rights.

If, in its struggle for human rights, a race goes
under, it means that it has weighed too light in the
scales of täte to be fit to continue to exist in this ter-
restrial world. For if a man is unprepared or unable
to fight for his life, just Providence has already decreed

his end.

The world is not for craven-hearted races.

Everything connected with the rise and the passing
of the Pan-German movement on the one hand, a^id
the astounding advance of the Christian-Socialist Party
on the other, were to be of the deepest consequence to
me as objects for study.

I shall Start my examination with the two men who
may be regarded as the founders and leaders ot the
two movements : George von Schoenerer and t)r. K.arl
Lueger.

Considered as men they tower, both of them, far
above the average political “parliamentary” Personal¬
ities. In that slough of universal political corruption
their whole hves remained clean and incorruptible.
And yet my personal sympathies lay at first on the side
of the Pan-German Schoenerer, but they gradually
attached themselves to the Christian-Socialist leader

as well.

When I compared their capabilities, Schoenerer
appearcd to me the better and more solid thinker on
the basic problems. He visualized the enforced end
of the Austrian State more clearly and correctly than
anyone eise. If his warnings regarding the Habsburg
Monarchy had been listened to particularly in the
Empire, the disaster of Germany’s World War against
the whole of Europe would never have happened.
But though Schoenerer realized the inwardness of the
Problems he was mistaken as regards the human element.

MY STRUGGLE

51

This was Lueger’s strong point. He had a rare
l uowledge of men, and he especially avoided the error
t )f visualizing men as better than they wcre. Thus he
look better account of the real possibilities ' of life,
whcreas Schoenerer had but little understanding of
them. All the Pan-German’s ideas were right in
iheory, but he lacked the strength and understanding
(0 communicate his theoretic knowledge to the public,
.ind to present it in such a form as to fit in with the
capability of the mass of the people for absorbing it,
for that is, and always will be, limited. Therefore all
liis knowledge was but the wisdom of a seer, with
iicver a possibility of becoming a practical reality.

Unfortunately he had a most imperfect perception
of the extraordinary limitations of the “Bourgeoisie’s”
rcadiness to fight, due to their Situation in Business,
which individuals are too much afraid of losing, and
which therefore deters them from action.

This lack of understanding of the significance of
the lower strafa of society was the cause of the utter
iiiadequacy of his views on the social question.

In all this Dr. Lueger was the opposite of Schoenerer.
He understoocl only too perfectly that the fighting
strength of the higher Bourgeoisie is small nowadays,
and insufficient to win a victory for a great new Move¬
ment. He was prepared to make use of all available
means of power, to attract to hirnself strong existing
institutions, so as to derive the greatest possible profit
for his movement from such old established sources of

|iower.

He based his new Party first of all on the middle
dass which was threatened with extinction, and thus
secured a dass of adherents extremely hard to shake,
ready both for great sacrifices and capable of stubborn
fighting. His extreme cleverness in maintaining rela-
lions with the Catholic Church won over the younger
clergy. In fact, the old Clerical Party were forced to
retire from the field, or eise they more sensibly joined

52

MY STRUGGLE

the new Party in the hope of gradually regaining their
Position.

Much injustice would be donc to the man if we
regard the foregoing as his only characteristic. For he
posscsscd the qualities not only of a great tactician, but
also of a really great and inspired reformer ; but he
had the restraints due to an exact knowledge of the
possibilities before him and also of his own capabilities.

The aims which this truly outstanding man sct
before himself were intensely practical. He wishcd
to capturc Vienna, the heart of the Monarchy. From
that city the final vestigcs of life filtered into the sickly,
worn-out body of the decaying Empire. If the heart
were sound, the rest of the body was bound to revive
—an idea correct in principle, but the period for turn-
ing it into action was finite and limited.

Herein lay the man’s weakness.

His achievements as Burgomaster of the city are
immortal in the best sense of the word ; but cven so
he could not save the Monarchy. It was too late.

His rival, Schoenerer, saw this more clearly.

What Dr. Lueger took practically in ’hand succeeded
wonderfully ; what he hoped for as a result of it came
to nothing.

Schoenerer failed to carry out his desires ; his
fears were realized, alas ! in a tcrrible fashion.

Thus neither of them attained their further objec-
tive. Lueger could not save Austria, and Schoenerer
could not guard the German race against ruin.

It is most instructive for us to-day to study the
causes of the failures of both thesc Parties. For my
friends it is essential, since in many points conditions
to-day are similar to those of that time, and it may
help US to avoid making the mistakes which led to the
death of one Movement and the barrenness of the other.

The fate which overtook the Pan-German move¬
ment was duc to the fact that it did not at the Start

MY STRUGGLE

53

;i<tach supreme importance to gaining adherents
iiinongst the great mass of the pcople. It grew bour-
f.cois and respectable, but underneath it was Radical.

The German position in Austria was already
«Irsperate by the time of the rise of Pan-Gcrmanism.
With each succeeding year Parliament was acquiescing
more and more in a policy of gradual extinction of the
(Jerman race. The only hope for any belatcd attempt
Io save it lay in the removal of that Institution ; there
was, however, but very little prospect of this.

The Pan-Germans wcnt into Parliament and came
out beaten.

The ‘‘Forum” in which the Pan-Germans put
(lirir case had grown not greater but more insignifi-
(:int ; for men only speak to the circles which are
ihcre to listen to them, or which receive their words
ilirough reports in the Press.

But the greatest “Forum” and the most direct as
i’<‘gards the listeners is not the Parliament Chamber,
but a large public meeting. For thousands of people
.ITC present who have come simply to hear what the
Speaker has to say to them, whereas in the Parliament
(Ihambcr only a few hundred are present, and most of
ihem merely attend for the purpose of recciving their
payment as members, and not to receive enlighten-
mcnt from the wisdom of one or other of the “People’s
K cpresentatives’ ’.

Speaking before such a “Forum” really is casting
I )(‘arls before swine. Truly it is not worth the trouble !
No sort of success is possible.

And that was what happened. The Pan-German
iiumbers grew hoarse with speaking—but they carried
HO wcight whatever.

The Press either ignored them entirely or so muti-
laicd their Speeches that any consccutiveness, often the
sense even, was twisted round or lost altogether, and
llic public received but a very bad picture of the aims
nf the new Movement. What individual members said

54

MY STRUGGLE

was not important ; the importance lay in what those
who read them received. This consisted of mere
snippets of their speeches, which, being mutilated,
merely could—and were meant to—produce a sense-
less impression. Thus the only Forum before which
they really spoke consisted of a palti^ 500 men, and
that teils US enough.

Worse was to follow :

The Pan-German movement could only hope for
success if it realized from the very first moment that it
was not a question of forming a new Party, but rather
a new view of life in general. This alone could call
up the inner forces to fight that immense struggle to a
finish. For that purpose none but the very best and
holdest brains are any good.

If the fight for a world System is not conducted by
heroes, ready to sacrifice all, in a short time it will be
impossible to find fighters prepared to die. A man
who fights only for himself cannot have much left over
for the general cause.

The hard struggle which the Pan-German move¬
ment had with the Catholic Church is only explicable
as being due to the lack of understanding there was of
the psychological character of the people.

The appointment of Czech incumbents to parishes
was one of the many methods used to transform Austria
generally into a Slav country. It was done somewhat
as follows : Czech clergy were introduced into purely
German parishes, and these soon began to superim-
pose the interests of the Czech race upon those of the
Church, and they became nuclei of the de-Germanizing
process.

The German clergy collapsed almost entirely, alas !
before this state of affairs. Not only were they them-
selves quite useless in a fight for the German cause, but
they were unable to meet the attacks of the other side
with sufficient force of resistance. Thus the German

MY STRUGGLE

55

race was slowly but irresistibly driven back by abuse
of religion on the one side and weakness in defence on
the other.

George Schoenerer was not one who did things by
halves. He took up the struggle with the Church
linder the conviction that he alone could rescue the
German race. The Los von Rom movement appeared
a most powerful, though a most difficult, form of
attack, but it was bound to lay the hostile Hofburg in
ruins. If it succeeded, the unhappy religious division
in Germ any would be settled for evcr, and such a
victory would prove an immense gain to the internal
strength of the Empire and the German nation. But
its assumption and its reasoning with regard to the
struggle were both incorrect.

There is no doubt that the national power of resist¬
ance of the Catholic priesthood of German nationality
in all questions affecting the German race was inferior
to that of their non-German brethren, especially the
Czechs. Whereas the Czech clergy treated their own
race subjectively, and the Church merely objectively,
the German priests’ devotion to the Church was sub-
jective, and it was objective as regards the German
race.

Compare the attitude, which our official dass, for
instance, is adopting towards a movement for a national
re-birth with that which would be adopted by the
official dass of any other nation under similar circum-
stances. Or do we imagine that the corps of officers
anywhere eise in the world would dismiss national
demands with the phrase “State authority”, as hap-
pened with us five years ago ; it was held up as being
perfectly natural, nay highly meritorious !

Do not both our creeds to-day assume an attitude
with regard to the Jewish question which is in harmony
neither with the nation’s importance nor with the
requirements of religion ? And yet compare the atti-
lude of any Jewish Rabbi in all questions of even minor

MY STRUGGLE

56

importance to Jewry as a race with that of our clergy
of both Christian creeds towards thc German

race.

That is what always happens with us if ever it is a
matter of defending an abstract idea.

“State authority”, “Democracy”, “Pacifisin”,
“International Solidarity”, etc., are merely ideas with
US, which we always convert into fixed and purely
doctrinaire conceptions, so that all matters of urgent
national necessity are judged from that point of
view.

Protestantism will always help in furthering all that
is essentially German whenever it is a matter of inward
purity or increasing national sentiment. or detence of
German life, language, nay, even German freedom,
since all these are essentially part of itself 5 but it is
most hostile to any attempt to rescue the nation from
the clutches of its most deadly enemy, for its attitude
towards Judaism has been laid down more or less as a
dogma. Nevertheless it wavers undecidedly around
thc question—and unless that question is solved, all
attempts to bring about a German revival are without
meaning or possibility of succcss.

Political parties ought to have nothing to do with
religious problems, as long as they are not undermining
the'morals of thc race ; in the same way religion should
not be mixed up with Party intrigues.

If Church dignitarics make use of religious institu-
tions and even doctrincs in order to injure their own
nationality, they ought to have no following ; their
own weapons should be used against them.

A political leader must never meddle with the
religious doctrines and institutions of his people, or
eise he ought not to be a politician, but rather a
reformer, if he has the qualities for that !

Any other attitude would lead to catastrophe

especially in Germany.

MY STRUGGLE

57

In thc course of my study of the Pan-German
movement and its struggle with Rome then and later
I arrived at thc following conclusion : through its poor
(omprehension of the meaning of the social problem
ilie Movement lost the fighting strength of the mass of
ihe people ; by going into Parliament it lost its driving
force and burdened itself with all the weaknesscs
iiilierent in that institution. Its struggle against the
(lliurch discredited it with many sections of the lower
.md middle classes and robbed it of very many of the
I )( st elements which could be named as bcing essentially
national.

The practical results of the Kulturkampf in Austria
wcre just nil.

In almost every respect in which the Pan-German
movement failed the dispositions of the Christian
Socialist Party wcre well and correctly thought out.

It had the nccessary understanding of the signifi-
. ance of the masses, and from the very Start it attracted
10 itself a certain section of them byoutspoken asscrtion
< . 1 ' its social character. And since it did really set out
Io win the lower middle and artizan classes, it gained a
l.iitliful and permanent following, ready for self-sacri-
hcc. It avoided fighting with any religious institutions
mid thus gained support from the powerful Organiza¬
tion rcpresented by the Church. It realized the value
of Propaganda on a large scale and specialized in
mduencing psychologically the instincts of the masses,
(licir adherents.

The fact that this Party failed in its dream of saving
Austria was due to its mcthods, which were mistaken
in two respects, and to the obscurity of its aims.

Instead of being founded on a racial basis, its anti-
Srmitism depended on thc religious conception. The
I cason why this error crept in was the same as that
wliich causcd the sccond mistake.

Its founder thought that if the Christian Socialist

5 ^

MY STRUGGLE

Party was to save Austria it ought not to take its stand
not on the racial principle, since a general dissolution
of the State would shortly follow in any case. The
leaders of the Party considered that the Situation in
Vienna demanded all possible avoidance of tendencies
towards disruption, and Support of all points of view
ronducing to unity.

Vienna was at that time so strongly impregnated
with Czech elements that nothing but extreme tolerance
in regard to all racial problems could keep that Party
from being anti-German from the Start. If Austria was
to be saved, that Party could not be dispensed with.
Thus they made special efforts to win the very large
number of small Czech traders in Vienna by opposing
the Manchester Liberal school of thought, and they
hoped thereby to have discovered a war-cry for the
fight against Judaism, based on religion, which would
put all differences of race in the old Austria in the
shade.

It is obvious that a fight on such a basis would
worry the Jews to a very limited degree. If the worst
came to the worst, a drop of Holy water would always
get them out of their troubles and preserve their Juda-
ism at the same time.

This doing things by halves destroyed the value of
the anti-Semitic position of the Christian Socialist
Party.

It was sham anti-Semitisrn and was almost worse
than none at all, for people were lulled into security
and thought they had the enemy by the ears, whereas
they were really led by the nose themselves.

If Dr. Karl Lueger had lived in Germany he would
have counted as one of the great men of our race ; it
was his misfortune and that of his work that it lay in
that impossible State, Austria. At the time of his
death the little flame in the Balkans was already begin-
ning to spread more greedily with each month that

ICSI

MY STRUGGLE

59

p.issed, so that kindly fate spared him the pain of seeing
wliat he still believed he would be able to prevent.

The Pan-German movement was quite right in its
ilicory as to the aim of German regeneration, but it was
imlucky in its choice of methods. It was nationalist
but, alas ! not social enough to win the mass of the
people. Its anti-Semitism was based on a true appre-
«iation of the importance of the racial problem and not

■ Ml theories of religion. On the other hand, its struggle
.igainst a definite creed erred both as regards facts and
i.iciics.

The Christian Socialist movement’s ideas about the
.lim of a German revival were too vague, but, as a
l*.irty, it was fortunate and intelligent in its choice of
iiirthods. It realized the importance of the social
ipicstion, but was mistaken in its fight against the
,|<-ws and was quite ignorant of the strcngth of the con-
I eption of nationality.

At that time I was a prey to discontent, the more I
icalized the hollowness of the State and the impossi-
bility of saving it. I feit with absolute certainty that
in all things it stood for the unhappiness of the German
I .ice.

I was convinced that the State was sure to check
.ind obstruct every really great German and to Support

■ very man and everything that was un-German. I
liated the mixture of races displayed in the Capital, I
li.'ited the motley collection of Czechs, Poles, Hun-
garians, Ruthenians, Serbs, Croats, etc., and above all,
iliat ever present fungoid growth—Jews, and againjews.

Seeing that my heart was never in love with an
Austrian monarchy, but ever beat for a German Reich,

I could only regard the collapse of that State as the
beginning of salvation for the German nation.

Therefore my longing grew even greater to go to
die land whither my secret love and desire had drawn
nie from my earliest youth.

6o

MY STRUGGLE

I hoped to make a name as an architect one day,
and, whether fate made me great or not, to dedicate
my devoted Service to my nation. I wanted to have
my share of Fortune, to be on the spot and play my
part in the country wliere my heart’s most burning
desire was destined to be fulfilled : the union of my
beloved home with the common Fatherland, the
German Reich.

Vienna gave me the hardest and most thorough
schooiing in my whole life ; only now do I fully appre-
ciate the essential value of those years of discipline.

That is why I have treated that period rather fully
—because it gave me my first instruction in the questions
affecting the principles of the Party, which, having
Started on a very small scale, is, after barely five years,*
well on the way to become a great populär movement.
I do not know what my attitude towards Judaism,
Social Democracy, all that is meant by Marxism, the
Social question, etc., would have been to-day, if the
force of destiny had not at that early period of my life
given me a Foundation of opinions based on persona]
experience.

♦ Written in 1924

GHAPTER IV

MUNICH

I N the spring of 1912 I went to Munich.

A German town ! How different from Vienna !

I feit bad when I thought of that Babylon of races.
Also the dialect, which was nearly the same as my
own and reminded me of my own youth with its Con¬
nections with Lower Bavaria. In a thousand ways it
was or became dear to me. I belong to that town
inore than to any spot in the world, and this is due to
die fact that it is inseparably bound up with my own
development.

In Austria the only adherents of the alliance idea
were the Habsburgs and the Germans. In the first it
was due to compulsion and calculation, and in the
second to easy credulity and political stupidity. Easy
('redulity, because they imagined they would do a
^r cat Service to the German Empire by means of the
'IViple Alliance, which would strengthen it and bring
ii Security ; political stupidity, because their imagina-
tions did not fit the facts, for they were really helping
Io chain the Empire to the dead carcase of a State,
which was bound to drag them down into the abyss ;
iiiore particularly, however, because that alliance was
contributing more and more to de-Germanize Austria
licrself. For since the Habsburgs believed an Alliance
with the Empire would insure them against any inter-
frrence on the part of the latter—and unfortunately
ihcy were right in this—they were enabled to continue
ihcir policy of gradually gettingrid of German influence

62

MY STRUGGLE

inside the country with more ease and less risk. Thcy
had no need to fear any protest from the German
Government, which was known for the ‘^objectivity” ot
its point of view, and moreover, in dealing with the
Austrian Germans they could always silence any
insistent voice which might be raised against some
particularly disgraceful instance of favouritism shown
to the Slavs, by a reference to the Triple Alliance.

If there had been more enlightened study of history
in Germany and racial psychology, no one could have
believed for an instant that the Quirinal in Rome and
the Hofburg in Vienna would ever fight side by side on
a common battle front. Italy would turn into a vol-
cano before any Government would dare send a single
Italian into the field on accoi^ of the fanatically hated
Habsburg State, except as enemy. I had more
than once seen the passionate disdain and unfathomed
hatred which obsessed the Italians against the Austrian
State flare up in Vienna. The sins of the House^ of
Habsburg in the course of centuries against Italian
freedom and independence were too great ever to be
forgotten, eveh supposing there were any desire to do
so. There was no such desire either amongst the
people or in the Italian Government. For Italy,
therefore, there were only two possible courses in deal¬
ing with Austria—alliance or war.

" Having chosen the first, they could calmly prepare

for the second.

The German alliance policy was both senseless and
risky, especially since Austria s relations towards Russia
had been tending more and more towards a Settlement

by war.

Why was any alliance concluded at all ? Simply
in Order to assure the future of the Reich when it was
in a Position to do so Standing on its own feet. But
the future of the Reich was nothing eise than the

MY STRUGGLE 63

(juestion of enabling the German nation to continue in
existence.

The population of Germany increases by nearly
()00,ooo annually.

TERRITORIAL AGQUISITION AS AGAINST A POLICY OF

COLONIAL TRADE

Both these courses were considered, examined,
recommended and combated from various points of
view, until finally the second was chosen. The first
course would undoubtedly have been the sounder of
the two. Acquisition of fresh territory to accommodate
(he overflow population contains infinitely greater
advantages, especially if the future, and not the present,
is considered.

The sole hope of success for a territorial policy
iiowadays is to confine it to Europe, and not to extend
it to places such as the Cameroons. It is the natural
determination to fight for our existence that we have
liad to thank for the two Ostmarken of the Reich and
the extent of our territory, which alone has permitted
US to exist until to-day, for our internal strength.

There is another reason why this solution would
have been the right one :

Many European States to-day are like pyramids
Standing on their points. Their possessions in Europe
are ridiculous compared with their top-heavy bürden
of colonies, foreign trade, etc. One might say : point
in Europe, base all over the world ; in contradistinction
10 the American Union, whose base covers its own con-
linent and whose apex is its point of contact with the
r’cst of the globe. Hence the vast internal strength of
(hat State and the weakness of most European colon-
i/ing Powers.

Even England is no proof to the contrary, for we
are too apt to forget the true nature of the Anglo-Saxon
world in its relation to the British Empire. If only on

MY STRUGGLE

(

64

account of her community of language and Kultur with
the American Union, England cannot be comparcd
with any other State in Europe.

Hence Germany’s only hope of carrying out a
sound territorial policy lay in acquiring fresh lands in
Europe itsclf. Colonies are useless for that object if
they appear unsuitable for settling Europeans in large
numbers. In the Nineteenth Century, however, it was
no longer possible to acquire such territory for coloniza-
tion by peaceful methods. A colonizing policy of that
kind could only be realized by means of a hard struggle,
which would be far more appropriate for the- sake of
gaining territory in the continent near home than for
lands outside Europe.

For such a policy there was only one possible ally in
Europe—Great Britain. Great Britain was the only
Power which could protect our rear, supposing we
started a new Germanic expansion {Germanenzug). We
should have had as much right to do this as our fore-
fathers had.

No sacrifice would have been too great in order to
gain England’s alliance. It would have meant renun-
ciation of colonies and importance on the sea, and
refraining from interference with British industry by
our competition.

There was a moment when Great Britain would
have let us speak to her in this sense; for she under-
stood very well that, owing to her increased population,
Germany would have to look for some solution and
find it either in Europe with Great Britain’s help, or
elsewhere in the world without it.

The attempt made from London at the turn of the
Century to obtain a rapprochement with Germany was
due first and foremost to this feeling. But the Germans
were upset by the idea of “having to pull England’s chest-
nuts out of the fire for her”,—as if an alliance were
possible on any basis other than that of reciprocity.
On that principle business could very well have been

MY STRUGGLE

Ö5

done with Whitehall. British diplomacy was quite
clever enough to know that nothing could be hoped for
without reciprocity.

Let US imagine that Germany, with a skilful foreign
policy, had played the part which Japan played in 1904
—we can hardly estimate the consequences that would
have had for Germany.

There would never have been a World War.

That method, however, was never adopted at all.

There still remained the possibility : industry and
world trade, sea power and colonies.

If a policy of territorial acquisition in Europe could
only be pursued in alliance with Great Britain against
Russia, a policy of colonies and world trade, on the
other hand, was only conceivable in alliance with
Russia against Great Britain. In this case they should
have drawn their conclusion ruthlessly, and have sent
Austria packing.

They adopted a formula of “peaceful economic
conquest of the world”, which was destined to destroy
for ever the policy of force which they had pursued up
to that time. Perhaps they were not quite certain of
(hemselves at times when quite incomprehensible
threats came across from Great Britain. Finally they
made up their minds to build a fleet, not for the purpose
of attacking and destroying, but to defend the “world-
peace” and for the “peaceful conquest of the world”.
Thus they were constrained to maintain it on a modest
scale, not only as regards numbers, but also as regards
the tonnage of individual ships and their armaments,
so as to make it evident that their final aim was a
peaceful one.

The talk about “peaceful economic conquest of
the world” was the greatest piece of folly ever set up
as a leading principle in State policy, especially as they
did not shrink from quoting Britain to prove that it
was possible to carry it out in practice. The harm

E

66

MY STRUGGLE

done by our professors with their historical teaching
and theories can scarcely be made good again, and it
merely proves in a striking fashion how many “learn”
history without understanding it or taking it in. Even
in the British Isles they had had to confess to a striking
refutation of the theory ; and yet no nation ever pre-
pared better for economic conquest even with the
sword, or later maintained it more ruthlessly, than the
British. Is it not the hallmark of British statecraft to
make economic gains out of political strength and at
once to reconvert each economic gain into political
power ? Thus it was a complete error to imagine that
England personally was too cowardly to shed her
blood in defence of her economic policy ! The fact
that the British possessed no national army was no
proof to the contrary ; for it is not the military form
of the national forces that matters, but rather the will
and determination to make use of what there is. Eng¬
land always possessed the armaments which she needed.
She always fought with whatever weapons were neces-
sary to ensure success. She fought with rnercenaries
as long as rnercenaries were good enough ; but she
seized hold of the best blood in all the nation when-
ever such a sacriüce was needed to make victory sure,
and she had always determination to fight, and was
tenacious and unflinching in the conduct of her wars.

In Germany, however, as time went on they
encouraged, by means of the schools, the Press and the
comic papers, an idea of British life and even more so,
of the Empire, which was bound to lead to the most
ill-timed self-deception ; for everything became gradu-
ally contaminated with this rubbish, and the result was
a low opinion of the British, which ended by revenging
itself most bitterly. This mistaken idea ran so deeply
that everyone was convinced that the Englishman, as
they imagined him, was a business man, both crafty
and incredibly cowardly. It never occurred to our
worthy professorial imparters of knowledge that

MY STRUGGLE

67

anything as vast as the British world Empire could never
have been assembled and kept together merely by
swindling and underhand methods. The few who
gave warnings were either ignored or silenced. I
remember distinctly the amazement on the faces of my
comrades in arms when we came face to face with the
Tommies in Flanders. After the very first days of
fighting it dawned on the brain of each man that those
Scotchmen did not exactly correspond with the people
whom writers in comic papers and newspaper reports
had thought fit to describe to us.

I began to reflect then on Propaganda and the
most useful forms of it.

This falsification certainly had its conveniences for
those who propagated it ; they were able to demon-
sträte by examples, however incorrect they might be,
the rightness of an economic conquest of the world.
We were bound to succeed where the Englishman had
succeeded ; whilst the fact that we were free from that
so-called British perfidie was held up as a special advan-
tage. It was hoped that it would attach the smaller
nations to us and win the confidence of the larger ones.

The value of the Triple Alliance was psychologi-
cally of little importance, since the binding force of an
alliance decreases the more it confines itself to main-
taining an existing condition. On the other hand, an
alliance waxes stronger the more the individual con¬
tracting Powers are able to hope that they will gain
definite, tangible advantage.

This was realized in various quarters, but unluckily
not by the so-called ‘‘professionals”. LudendorfF, then
a colonel on the Great General Staff, in particular,
pointed out this weakness in a memorandum in 1912.
Naturally the ‘‘Statesmen” refused to attach any sig-
nificance or importance to the matter.

For Germany it was a pure piece of luck that the

68

MY STRUGGLE

War broke out in 1914 indirectly by way of Austria,
and that the Habsburgs were thus forced to take part
in it ; if it had happened the other way round, Ger-
many would have been left all by herseif.

The Austrian connection robbed Germany of the
best and most promising prospects which alliance
might have given her. In place of them, in fact, there
was continually increasing tension with Russia and
even Italy. In Rome feeling was universally pro-
German, whilst, deep down in the heart of every single
Italian, it was anti-Austrian and frequently burst out
in a blaze.

In the modest Company wliich I then frequented, I
made no attempt to hide my conviction that that
wretched treaty with a State doomed to destruction
would lead to a catastrophic collapse of Germany,
unless she managed to break loose from it while there
was yet time. I never deviated for a moment from
that conviction, firm as a rock, when the torrent of
the World War appeared finally to have made reason-
able reflection impossible, and the rush of enthusiasm
carried along with it those highly placed ones, whose
sole duty was cold consideration of realities. Even
when I myself was at the front, whenever the problem
was discussed I expressed my opinion that the quicker
the alliance was broken off the better it would be for
the German nation, and that to sacrifice the Habsburg
Monarchy would be no sacrifice for Germany, if she
could thereby reduce the number of her enemies, since
the millions of Steel helmets had not been assembled in
Order to maintain a decrepit dynasty, but to save the
German nation.

Before the War it seemed at times as though there
were signs that in one camp at least there was a slight
doubt as to the correctness of the alliance policy which
was being pursued. From time to time Conservative
circles in Germany started to warn against too much

MY STRUGGLE

Ö9

trustfulness, but, like everything eise that was reason-
able, it was thrown to the winds. They were con-
vinced that they were on the road to conquer the world,
that success would be unlimited and that nothing would
have to be sacrificed.

Once more the ‘^non-professionals” had nothing
left but to look on silently whilst the “professionals”
were marching straight to destruction, drawing the
innocent nation after them like the rat-catcher of
Hamelin.

The victorious march of German technical skill
and industry, the swelling triumphs of German trade,
caused them to forget the fact that all this was only
possible on the assumption of a strong state. Many,
on the contrary, went so far as to proclaim their con¬
viction that the State owed its life simply to these
developments, that it was first and foremost an
economic institution and should be conducted accord-
ing to the rules of economics, so that it should really
depend for its existence on commerce, a condition
which was held to be far the healthiest and most
natural of all conditions.

The State, however, has nothing to do with any
definite economic conception or economic develop¬
ment.

It is not an assembly of commercial negotiators
during a period with defined limits for the purpose of
carrying out economic objects, but the Organization of
a Community, homogeneous in nature and feeling, for
the better furtherance and maintenance of their type,
and the fulfilment of the destiny marked out for them
by Providence. This and nothing eise is the objectand
significance of a State.

The Jewish State never had boundaries, as far as
space was concerned ; it was unlimited as regards

70

MY STRUGGLE

space, but bound down by its conception of itself as a
race. That people, therefore, was always a State
within the State. It was one of the cleverest tricks
ever invented when that State was stamped with
‘‘rcligion’’ and so assured of the tolerance, which the
Aryan is always ready to extend to religious creeds.
For the Mosaic religion is really nothing but a doctrine
for the preservation of the Jewish race. Hence it
embraces nearly every brauch of sociological, political
and economic knowledge which could ever come into
question in connection with it.

Whenever there was an advance in political power
in Germany, business also began to look up ; whereas,
whenever business monopolized the life of our people
and smothered the virtues of the mind, the State broke
down again and dragged business along with it.

And yet if we ask ourselves what the forces are
which make and maintain States, we find that they
come under one single denomination : ability and
readiiiess to sacrifice the individual for the sake of the
Community. That these virtues have no relation to
economics is obvious from the simple realization that
man never sacrifices himself for purposes of business—

men do not die for business, but for ideals. Nothing
displayed the Englishman’s psychological superiority
in readiness of a national ideal better than the reasons
he put forward for fighting. Whilst we fought for daily
bread, England fought for ‘Treedom’’—not her own,
but that of the little nations. In Germany they mocked
at this effrontery and got angry, proving thereby how
thoughtless and stupid Germany’s so-called Statecraft
had become before the War. We had not the slightest
conception' of the nature of the forces which could lead
men to their death of their own free will and volition.

As long as the German people continued to think
in 1914 that they were fighting for ideals, they stood
their ground ; but the moinent it became evident that

MY STRUGGLE

71

they were merely fighting for their daily bread, they
were glad to throw up the sponge.

Our intelligent ‘‘Statesmen”, however, were amazed
at this change of temper.

The pre-war belief that it was possible to lay the
World open for the German nation, or indeed conquer
it, by the peaceful method of a policy of trade and
colonization, was a classic sign that the genuine virtues
which make and maintain States, and all the resulting
insight, will-power and determination to accomplish
great things, were gone. By the law of Nature, the
immediate result of this was the World War with all
its consequences.

I now for the first time turned these questions over
in my mind coloured, as they were, by my position
towards Germany’s alliance policy and the economic
policy of the Empire from 1912 to 1914, and I found
that the solution of the riddle lay more and more cer-
tainly in that force with which I had made acquaint-
ance, but from quite another standpoint, in Vienna :
the doctrine and world-view of Marxism and its
organizing influence.

For the first time I began to consider how an
attempt might be made to master that world-pestilence.

I studied the aims, the struggles and the success of
Bismarck’s special legislation. My study gradually
gave me principles of granite for my own convictions
—so much so that since then I have never had to
think of changing my^ personal views on the question.
I made also a deep study of the relation between
Marxism and Judaism.

In 1913 and 1914 I began expressing my convictions
in various circlcs, which to-day are in part still true to
the National-Socialist movement, that the question of
the future for the German nation is that of the destruc-
tion of Marxism.

The interna] decline of the German nation had

72

MY STRUGGLE

begun a long time before that, but, as in life, people
were not clear about the destroyer of their existence.
They sometimes tried treatment for the disease, but
they often mistook the Symptoms for the cause. As no
one knew that or wished to know it, the fight against
Marxism was worth no more than the nonsensical
recornmendations of a quack.

GHAPTER V

THE WORLD WAR

I N my excitable youth nothing had worried me so
much as having been born in a time when it was
evident that the only people who had temples erected
in their honour were the merchants and State officials.
'Fhe waves of political events appeared to have calmed
down to such an extent that the future seemed really
to belong to ‘^peaceful competition between nations”,
quiet mutual swindling stopping short of violent
inethods. The various States began showing favour
to enterprises, which cut the ground from under each
other, Stole each other’s customers and contracts, and
sought to take advantage of each other in every possible
way, the whole scene being staged with a din as harm-
less as it was noisy. This development appeared not
only to be permanent, but it seemed—with universal
approval—to be going to re-model the world at one
l)low as a single vast warehouse, under Jewish bosses,
in the vestibules of which busts of the craftiest pro-
liteers and the least go-ahead officials would be stored
lo all eternity.

Why could I not have been born a hundred years
carlier ? Somewhere about the time of the War of
Liberation, when a man was still worth something,
(|uite apart from “business”'?

When the news of the murder of the Archduke
l'Vancis Ferdinand reached Munich (I was in the
house at the time and only heard vaguely how it all
happened), my first fear was that the bullets were per-
liaps thosc of the pistols of German students who, being
cxasperatcd by the favour which the Heir Presumptive

73

74

MY STRUGGLE

perpetually showed to the Slavs, desired to free the
German nation from their domestic enemy. I could
quickly imagine what the result of that would be : a
fresh wave of pcrsecution, which would now be
‘‘explained and justified” before the whole world.
But when immediately afterwards I heard the names
of the alleged criminals and that they were known to
be Serbs, I began to feel a slight horror at the ven-

geance of inscrutable destiny.

The greatest friend of the Slavs had fallen a victiin

to the bullets of Slav fanatics.

An injusticc is being done to-day to the Vienna
Government, when reproaches are showered upon it
regarding the form and contents of the Ultimatum
which it issued. No other Power in the world could
have acted differently in a similar Situation. On her
Southern border Austria possessed an inexorable and
mortal enemy, who at constantly shorter intervals
challenged the Monarchy and would never have given
over tili the favourable moment arrived for laying the
Empire in ruins. There was good reason to fear that
this would come to pass as soon as the old Emperor
died ; when that happened the Monarchy might per-
haps no longer be able to ofFer serious resistance. In
rccent years the State had dcpended on the life of
Francis Joseph so greatly that the death of that aged
personification of it would, in the eyes of the mass of
the people, be equivalent to the death of the State
itself.

Yes, it is really unjust to Government circles in
Vienna to reproach them with having forced on the
War which might perhaps have been avoided other-
wise. It could not have been avoided, but it might
have been postponed for one, or perhaps two, years at
most. But the curse of German as well as Austrian
diplomacy was that they had always tried to put off
the inevitable day of reckoning, tili they were forced to

r

MY STRUGGLE 75

strike the blow at an hour which was unfavourable.
We may be certain that any further attempt to pre-
scrve peace would have brought on the War at a
moment still less favourable.

For many years Social Democracy had been agi-
lating in Germany for war against Russia in the most
disgraceful fashion, whereas the Centre Party, for
reasons of religion, had pivoted German policy mainly
011 Austria-Hungary. Now the consequences of that
error had to be endured. What happened was bound
to happen and could under no circumstances be
averted. The guilt of the German Government lay in
the fact that, merely for the sake of preserving peace,
it missed the favourable moment for action, got
cntangled in an alliance for maintaining peace in the
world, and thus finally became the victim of a world
coalition which opposed the urge to maintain peace in
tlie world with a determination to bring on a world war.

A war for freedom had broken out, vaster than the
world had ever yet seen.

Scarcely had the news of the outrage become known
in Munich when two ideas at once entered my head ;
lirst that war was absolutely inevitable, and secondly,
that the Habsburg State would be forced to stick to its
alliance ; for what I had most feared was the possi-
bility that one day Germany herseif, perhaps directly
because of that alliance, would slip into a conflict
of' which Austria might have been the immediate cause,
and that the Austrian State, for reasons of internal
politics, would not develop sufFicient resolution to
come to the assistance of its ally. The old State had
to fight, whether it wished to or not.

My own attitude towards the conflict was both
simple and clear. In my eyes it was not Austria
fighting to get a little satisfaction out of Serbia, but
Germany fighting for her life, the German nation for

f

76 MY STRUGGLE

its be or not to be”, its freedom and future. It
would have to follow in Bismarck’s footsteps ; young
Germany must again defend what the fathers had
heroically fought for from Weissenburg to Sedan and
Paris. But if the struggle was to be a victorious one,
our people would by their own force take their place
again among the great nations, and then the German
Reich could stand as a mighty guardian of peace,
without the necessity to curtail its children’s daily
bread for the sake of this peace,

On the third of August, I addressed a petition to
His Majesty King Ludwig III to be allowed to serve
in a Bavarian regiment. The Cabinet Office during
those days certainly had its hands pretty full, and my
joy was all the greater when my petition was granted
the same day.

Now began for me, as for every German, the
greatest and most unforgettable period of my life 011
earth. Compared with the events of that mighty
struggle, all the past feil into empty oblivion. I think
with pride and sorrow of those days, and back to the
weeks of the beginning of our nation’s heroic fight, in
which kind fortune allowed me to take part.

Thus it went on from year to year ; horror had
taken the place of the romance of fighting. Enthus-
iasm gradually cooled off, and the glorious exuberance
was drowned in the agony of death. A time came
when each man had to struggle between the urge of
self-prcservation and the call of duty, By the winter
of 1915-16 this struggle was over in myself. My will
was at last victorious. In the early days I was able
to join in the attack with cheers and laughter ; now
I was calm and determined. Thus I went on until
the end. Only thus could fate move forward to the
last test without breaking my nerve or loosening my
reason.

MY STRUGGLE

77

The young volunteer had grown into an old soldier.
I his change had taken place throughout the army.
'The perpetual fighting aged and hardened it, and
broke any who could not stand up against the storm.

Then only could one form a judgrnent of that
army. After two-three years, during which it was
continually fighting one battle after another, against
Superior odds in numbers and weapons, undergoing
liunger and privations—that was the time to consider
the virtue of that army.

Though thousands of years pass, none may talk
of heroism without thinking of the German Army in
the World War. Through the mists of the past the
grey Steel helmet will appear, never fiinching or turn-
ing aside, a monument of immortality. As long as
there are Germans left, they will reflect that these men
were once sons of their nation.

In those days I cared nothing for politics, but I
could not help forming an opinion on certain mani-
(estations which affected the whole nation, but con-
rerned us soldiers most of all.

I was angered by the way it was considered right
Io regard Marxism, the final and perpetual aim of
which was the destruction of all non-Jewish national
States, saw to its disgust in those days of July, 1914,
liow the German working dass, which it had been
assiduously ensnaring, had woken up and was ranging
itself more and more rapidly hour by hour in the
Service of the Fatherland. In a few days the fog and
(leception of that infamous national betrayal had dis-
sipated into thin air, and the gang of Jewish leaders
suddenly found themselves alone and deserted, just as
ihough not one trace was left of the folly and madness,
with which the masses had been inoculated for sixty
years, was left in existence. That was a bad moment
for the betrayers of German Labour. As soon, how-
ever, as the leaders realized the danger thrcatening

MY STRUGGLE

78

them, they hastily drew the Tarn-cap of lies over their
ears and impudently mimicked the national uprising.

But now was the moment to attack the whole
treasonable association of those Jewish poisoners of
our nation. Now—because the German workers had
rediscovered the road to nationality—it should have
been the Government’s anxious care to root out with-
out mercy those who were agitating against nationality.

At a time when the best were falling at the front,
those who stayed might at least have extirpated the
vermin.

Instead of this His Majesty the Emperor in person
stretched out his hand to the old criminals, gave them
his protection and enabled them to maintain their
association.

Every general world theory {Weltanschauung),
whether religious or political in nature, it is sometirnes
hard to say where one begins and the other ends—
fights not so much negatively to destroy the opposing
world of ideas as positively to establish its own. Thus
its struggle lies in attack rather than defence. Hence
the definiteness of its aim gives it an advantage,^ for
that aim is the victory of its own ideas, whereas it is
hard to dehne when the negative aim of destroying the
hostile doctrine can be said to be attained and assured.
Hence a world theory is more dcßnite in plan, as well
as more powerful in attack than in defence, for the
.ßnal decision lies in attack and not in defence.

Every attempt to combat a world theory by means
*of force comes to grief in the end, so long as the struggle
fails to take the form of aggression in favour of a new
intellectual conception. It is only when two world
theories are wrestling on equal terms that brüte force,
persistent and ruthless, can bring about a decision by
arms in favour of the side which it supports.

It was on this that the ßght against Marxism had
failed up to that time. It was the reason why Bis-
marck’s legislation regarding Socialism failed in the

xMY STRUGGLE

79

end in spite of everything, and was bound to fail. It
lacked the platform of a new world theory, to estab¬
lish which the fight might have been fought ; for only
the proverbial wisdom of high State officials could find
it possible to imagine that the twaddle about so-called
State authority” or ‘‘order and tranquillity” are a
suflBcient inducement to fight to the death.

In 1914 a contest against Social Democracy was in
fact conceivable, but the lack of any practical Substi¬
tute made it doubtful how long such a contest could
have been maintained successfully. In that respect
there was a serious blank.

Long before the War I held this opinion, and for
that reason I could not make up my mind to join any
one of the Parties then existing. As the World War
went on I was confirmed in my opinion still further by
the obvious impossibility, directly due to the lack of a
movement which would have to be much more than a
‘Tarliamentary” Party, of resuming the fight ruth-
lessly against Social Democracy.

I frequently talked about it to my more intimate
comrades. It was then that I first conceived the idea
of becoming an active politician later on ; and this
was the reason why I now often assured the small circle
of my friends that I wished to work after the War as
a Speaker, in addition to my own proper profession.

I think that it was very serious in my mind.

GHAPTER VI

WAR PROPAGANDA

AT the time when I was following all political
l \ events with attention, the business of Propa¬
ganda was always of extreme interest to me. In it I
saw an instrument which the Socialist-Marxist Organ¬
ization had long controlled with masterly skill and
employed to the full. I soon came to realize that the
right use of Propaganda was a regulär art, which was
practically unknowm to the bourgeois Parties. The
Christian-Socialist movement alone, in Lueger’s time
especially, applied the instrument with a certain vir-
tuosity and owed many of their successes to it.

Had we any Propaganda at all ?

Alas ! I can only reply no. All that was under-
taken in that direction was so inadequate and wrong-
headed from the Start as to be not of the slightest use
—sometimes it did actual harm.

Insufficient in form, wrong psychologically ; there
can be no other outcome of a systematic examination
of the German war propaganda. They even seem to
have been uncertain as to the first question : Is Pro¬
paganda a means or an end ?

It is a means, and must be judged from the point
of view of the objective it is to serve. It must be suit-
ably shaped so as to assist that objective. It is also
clear that the importance of the objective may vary
from the standpoint of general necessity, and that the
essential qualities of propaganda must vary so as to be
in harmony with it. The objective we fought for, as
the War went on, was the noblest and most compelling
which is imaginablc to man. It was the freedom and

8o

MY STRUGGLE

8i

independence of our nation, sccurity for future nourish-
incnt and—the nation’s honour.

As regards the question of humanity, Moltke has
said that in war the essential is to bring the matter to
a finish quickly, and that the severest methods conduce
most elfectually to that end.

Propaganda in the War was a means to an end.
It was a struggle for the life of the German nation ;
llierefore propaganda could only be founded on prin-
ciples which were of value to that objective. The
cruellest weapons were humane, if they conduced to a
speedier victory, and indeed they were the only
method which helped the nation to secure a dignity of
freedom.

This was the only possible attitude to adopt towards
die question of war propaganda in a life and death
struggle such as this.

If those in high positions had been clear about the
Ibregoing there would have been no uncertainty as to
(he form and employment of this weapon ; for it is
iiothing more nor less than a weapon, but a really
icrrible one in the hands of one who understands it.

All Propaganda should be populär and should
adapt its intellectual level to the receptive ability of
(he least intellectual of those whorn it is desired to
address. Thus it must sink its mental elevation deeper
in Proportion to the numbers of the mass whom it has
lo grip. If it is, as it is with propaganda for carrying
(hrough a war, a matter of gathering a whole nation
within its circle of influence, there cannot be enough
attention paid to avoidance of too high a level of
iiitellectuality.

The receptive ability of the masses is very limited,
(lieir understanding small ; on the other hand, they
have a great power of forgetting. This being so, all
fdfective propaganda must be confined to very few
points, which must be brought out in the form of

82

MY STRUGGLE

1 \

]

Slogans, until the very last man is enabled to compre-
hend what is meant by any slogan. If this principle
is sacrificed to the desire to be many-sided, it will dis-
sipate the effectual working of the Propaganda, for the
crowd will be unable to digest or retain the material
that is offered them. It will, moreover, weaKcn and
finally cancel its own effectiveness.

It was, for instance, fundamentally wrong to paint
the enemy in a ridiculous light, as the Austrian and
German comic papers made a point of doing in their
Propaganda ; wrong because, when the enemy was
actually met with in the flesh, it was bound at oncc to
produce on our men a totally different impression of
him, which subsequently took its revenge in a most
terrible manner ; for the German soldier, under the
direct impression of the enemy’s power of resistance,
now feit he had been deceived by the fabricators of his
Information up to that moment, and instead of strength-
ening or at least confirming his fighting keenness, it
did the opposite. The men broke down under it.

On the other hand, the British and American war
Propaganda was psychologically correct. By display-
ing the German to their own people as a barbarian
and a Hun, they were preparing the individual soldier
for the horrors of war, and so helped to spare him dis-
appointrnents. The most terrible of the weapons
which now came against him were now, for him,
merely a confirmation of the Information which he
had already received and reinforced his faith in the
truth of his Government’s assertions, whilst it heightened
his rage and hatred against the villainous enemy.

Thus the British soldier never feit that the Informa¬
tion he got from home was untrue, and this, alas !
was so much the case with the German, that he ended
by rejecting all that came from that quarter as pure
swindle and Krampf,

What, for instance, should we say about a poster

MY STRUGGLE

83

advertising a new soap, if it described other soaps as
being “good” ? We should shake our heads over it.

It was fundamentally wrong, when discussing the
subject of war guilt, to suggest that Germany could
not be counted as alone responsible for the outbreak of
that catastrophe ; the proper thing would have been
to lay the bürden of it without cease upon the enemy,
even if this did not correspond with the true course of
events, as was nevertheless the actual fact.

The masses are in no position to distinguish where
foreign illegality. begins and our own ends.

An immense majority of the people are so feminine
in nature and point of view, that their thoughts and
actions are governed more by feeling and sentiment
than bv reasoned consideration^V

This sentiment is, however, not complicated, but
very simple and consistent. It does not differentiate
much, but it is either positive or negative, love or hate,
truth or lies, never half one and half the other, and so
on.

This was realized by the British propaganda with
very real genius. In England there were no half
Statements which might have given rise to doubts.

The proof of their brilliant understanding of the
primitiveness of sentiment in the mass of the people
lay in the publication of horrors, which siiited this
condition and both cleverly and ruthlessly prepared
the ground for moral solidity at the front even when
great defeats came along, and further, in nailing down
the German enemy as being the sole cause of the War
—a lie, the unqualified irnpudence of which, and the
way it was put before the nation, took account of the
sentimental and extremist nature of the public, and so
gained credence.

Alteration of methods should not alter the essence
of what Propaganda is meant to effect, but its purport
must be the same at the end as at the Start. The

84

MY STRUGGLE

Slogan may have various lights thrown upon it, but
any treatment applied to it should always finish with
the Slogan. Propaganda can work solidly and con-
sistently in no other way.

The success of any advertisement, whether in
business or politics, is due to the continuity and con-
sistency with which it is employed.

The example of enemy propaganda was typical of
this also. It confined itself to few points of view, was
addressed solely to the masses, and was pursued with
untiring perseverance. Throughout the whole War
use was made of the basic ideas and forms of expression
found to be right at the beginning, and even the
slightest alteration was never considered. At first it
appeared lunatic from the impudence of its assertions
—later on it became unpleasant and was finally
believed. At the end of four and a half years revolu-
tion broke out in Germany, and its war-cries were
inspired by the enemy’s war propaganda.

The British understood yet another thing—that
this intellectual weapon can only be used successfully
with the masses, but that, if successful, it richly repays
what it costs.

Propaganda counted with them as a weapon of the
first dass, whereas with us it was the last way for
officeless politidans to make a living and a tiny berth
for modest heroes.

Taken all in all, its success was just nil.

CHAPTER VI]

THE REVOLUTION

I r was in the summer of 1915 that the enemy began
dropping leaflets on us from the air.

Pheir contents were almost always the same,
although there were variations in the form of presenta-
tion : Distress was continually on the increase in
(iermany ; the War was never going to stop, while
the prospect of winning it was growing ever fainter ;
the^ people at home were yearning for peace, but
“militarism” and the Kaiser would not allow it ; the
whole World—to whom this was well known—was
therefore not waging war against the German nation,
but solely against the man who alone was responsible,
the Kaiser ; so that the War would not come to an
end until that enemy of peaceful humanity was
lernoved. But the liberal and democratic nations,
after the War was over, would receive the German
nation into the league of perpetual world peace, which
was assured once ‘Trussian militarism” was destroyed.

Most of the men merely laughed at these tempta-
tions.

One point in this kind of propaganda should be
noted, On every part of the front where there were
Bavarians it made a dead set at Prussia, declaii'ing not
only that Prussia was the real guilty party, but that in
the Allied countries there was no enmity at all, par-
ticularly against Bavaria ; there was, however, no
possibility of helping her as long as shc joined in

scrving Prussian militarism and in pulling its chestnuts
out of the fire.

Even in 1915 this kind of persuasion really began

85

86

MY STRÜGGLE

to achieve a definite efiect. Feeling against Prussia
amongst the troops grew up quite visibly—and the
authorities never once took measures to stem it.

By 1916 the complaining letters frorn home were
having a direct influence, and it was now no longer
especially necessai^ for the eiiemy to disseminate them
at the front by means of leaflets from the air. The
silly letters written by German women cost hundreds
of thousarids of men their lives in the period which
followed.

There were already objectionabie phenomena. The
front cursed and groused and was angry and discon-
tented—sometimes rightly so. Whilst they starved
and sutfered, their people at home sat in poverty,
whilst others had rnore than enough and revelled.
Even at the battle-front all was not as it should be in
this respect.

Crises easily arose, but these were ‘‘domestic ’
events. The same man who had groused and
grumbled did his duty diligently a few minutes later as
if it was quite natural. A Company which had been
discontented clung on to the bit of trench which it had
to defend as though Germany’s fate depended on those
few hundred metres of mud-holes. At the front it
was still the old glorious army of heroes.

I was wounded in October, 19^65 but happily had been
brought back and was ordered home to Germany by
ambulance train. Two years had passed since I last
saw my home, an almost endless time under such cir-
cumstances. I went to a hospital near Berlin. What
a change !

Alas ! the world was a new one in other respects.
The spirit of the army at the front seemed to have no
place here. I came across for the first time something
which was so far unheard of at the front—boasting of
one’s own cowardice !

As soon as I was properly fit to walk I obtained

MY STRÜGGLE

87

leave to visit Berlin. Bitter poverty was evident
everywhere. The city of millions was starving. There
was much discontent. In some houses where soldiers
visited, the tone was much the same as in the hospital.
One got the Impression that those fellows purposely
looked for such spots in which to air their opinions.

In Munich conditions were far, Tar worse. When
l had recovered and was discharged from hospital I
was sent to the reserve battalion, and I feit I hardly
recognized the town again. Anger, discontent and
curses wherever I went. The soldiers returned from
the front had certain pcculiarities, explicable from
their Service at the front, which were quite incomprc-
hensible to the elderly commanders of reserve units,
but were obvious for an officer who had himself just
come back. The respect paid by the men to such a
one was quite different from that given to an officer at
the rear. With these exceptions the general spirit
was wretched. Scrimshanking almiost counted as a
sign of higher intelligence, devotion to duty as a mark
of weakness and narrow-mindedness. The offices were
full of Jews. Almost evcry clerk was a Jew, and almost
every Jew a clerk. I was amazed at this mass of
cornbatants of the chosen race, and could not help
comparing it with the sparseness with which they
were represented at the front.

In the business world it was still worse. Here the
Jewish nation had become actually ‘indispensable’’.

The munitions strike at the end of 1917 did not
produce the hoped-for result in starving the front of
arms ; it collapsed too quickly for the lack of munitions,
l)y itself—as was intended—to condernn the army to
defeat. But how great and how disgraceful was the
moral harm which had been started !

First, what was the army going on fighting for, if
cven the people at home did not desire victory ? For

whom these vast sacrifices and privations ? The soldier

*■<

88

MY STRUGGLE

has to fight for victory, at home they are striking
against it !

Secondly, what efiect was it having on the enemy ?

In the winter of 1917-18 dark clouds covered the
firmament of the Allied world.

All the hopes founded on Russia were at an end.
The Ally, who had ofFered the biggest blood sacrifice
at the altar of their joint Interests, had reached the end
of his strength and lay at the mercy of his strong
assailant. Fear and gloom entered the hearts of the
soldiers, who up to then had been possessed by blind
faith. They feared the coming spring. For, seeing
that they had so far failed to break the German when
he could place only part of his forces on the Western
front, how were they to count on victory now that the
undivided forces of that tremcndous State of heroes
appeared to be gathering for an attack against the
West ?

At the moment that the German divisions received
their final Orders for the great attack, the General
Strike broke out in Germany.

The world was dumbfounded at first. Then the
enemy propaganda breathed again and pounced on
this help at the twelfth hour. Here at one blow was
the means for reviving the sinking confidence of the
allied soldiers, for representing the chance of victory as
being now a certainty once more, and for turning the
terrified depression with regard to coming events into
determined confidence.

British, French and American newspapers started
sowing this conviction in the hearts of their readers,
whilst immensely clever propaganda was used to excite
the troops at the front.

‘'Germany on the Eve of Revolution ! An Allied
Victory Inevitable This was the best medicine to
set the wavering Tommy or Poilu on his feet again.

All this was the result of the munitions strike. It

MY STRUGGLE

^^9

rcvived faith in victory in the enemy nations and did
away with that crippling depression 011 the allied
front ; as a conscquence thousands of German soldiers
paid for it with their blood. But the promoters of that
rascally and disgraceful strike were those who expected
to obtain the biggest posts under the State in revolu-
tionary Germany.

It was my luck to be in the first two and the last
offensives. They made on me the most tremendous
impressions that ever came to me in the whole of my
lifc ; tremendous, because for the last time the struggle
lost its character of a defensive and became an offensive,
as it was in 1914.

At the height of the summer of 1918 it was stifiingly
liot all over the front. There were quarrels going on
at home. What about ? In the various units of the
army there were many rumours. It secrned that the
War was now hopeless, and only fools could think we
were going to win.

It was not the nation, but the capitalists and the
Monarchy which were interested in going on with it.
This was the new^s from home, and it was discussed at
the front.

At first the front reacted to it very little. What
did Universal Suffrage matter to us ? Was that what
we had l3een fighting for for four years ?

The front, in its old stable condition, had very little
use for the new war aims of Messrs. Ebert, Scheidemann,
Barth, Liebknecht, etc. We could not make out why
the shirkers had a right to arrogate to themselves State
control of the Army.

My own political notions w^ere fixed from the Start.

[ loathed that whole wretched gang of Party hacks
who had betrayed the nation. I had long seen clearly
that that gang was not really thinking about the good
of the nation, but of filling their own empty pockets.

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MY STRUGGLE

And the fact that they wcre prepared to sacrifice the
whole nation for that, and to let Germany go under, if
necessary, made them fit to be hanged in my eyes.
Attention paid to their wishes meant sacrificing the
interests of the working classes for the benefit of a lot
of pickpockets ; carrying of them into practice was
impossible unless we were prepared to let Germany go.
Far the greater part of the Ariny still thought the same
as I did.

In August and September the sigiis of decay
increased more and more rapidly, although the effect
of the enemy attacks were not at all to bc compared
with the frightfulness of our own defensive battles. In
comparison with them the Somme and Fl anders battles
were things of the past, a ghastly memory.

By the end of September my Division, for the third
time, arrived at the positions we had stormed as a
young volunteer regiment.

What a memory.

Now, in the autumn of 1918, the men had become
difierent, there was political discussion among the
troops. The poison from home was beginning to have
its effect here, as everywhere. The young drafts suc-
cumbed to it altogether. They had come straight from
home.

Düring the night of October 13-14 the British began
to throw gas-shells on to the Southern front before
Ypres. We were still on a hill south of Werwick on
the evening of October 13, when we came under a
drum-fire lasting several hours, which continued through-
out the night with more or less violence. About mid-
night a number of us dropped out—some for ever.
Towards morning I feit a pain which got worse with
eveiy quarter hour that passed, and at about seven
o’clock I tottered rearwards with scorching eyes,
reporting myself for the last time in that war.

MV STRÜGGLli Qi

A few hours later my eyes had turned into burning
coals, and it was all dark around me. I was sent to
hospital at Pasewalk in Pomerania, and whilst there I
was destined to see the Revolution.

Bad rumours kept on coming in from the Navy,
which was said to be in a ferment, but this seemed to
me to be something born of the excited imagination of
a few youths rather than a matter affecting large
numbers of men. In hospital ever^^one talked of the
end of the war, which they hoped was swiftly approach-
ing, but no one imagined it was to come immediately.
I was unable to read the newspapers.

In November the general tension increased. Then
one day the disaster came upon us suddenly and with-
out warning. Sailors arrived in lorries and called on
all to revolt, a few Jewish youths being the leaders in
that struggle for the ^Treedom, beauty and dignity’’ of
our national life. Not one of them had ever been to
the front.

The following days brought with them the worst
realization of my life. The rumours grew more and
more definite. What I had imagined to be a local aflfair
was apparently a general revolution. In addition to
all this, distrcssing news came back from the front.
They wanted to capitulate. Yes—was such a thing
possible ?

On November loth the aged pastor came to the
hospital for a short address ; then we heard every-
thing.

I was present and was profoundly affected. The
good old man seemed to be trembling when he told us
that the House of Hohenzollern was to wear the German
Imperial crown no more—that the Fatherland had
become a Republic.

So all had been in vain. In vain all the sacrifices
and privations, in vain the starvation and thirst for
many endless months, in vain the hours we spent doing

92

MY STRUGGLE

our duty, gripped by thc fear of death, and in vain
the death of two millions of men !

And our countr}^ ?

But—was this the only sacrifice we should be called
on to endure ? Was the Germany of the past worth
less than we thought ? Had she no Obligation owing
to her own history ? Were we worthy to clothe our-
selv'es in the glory of the past ? In what light could

this act be presented for justification to future genera-
lions ?

Miserable, depraved criminals !

The more I tried in that hour to get clear ideas
about that tremendous event, the more did I blush
with burning rage and shame. What was all the pain
of my eyes in comparison with this misery ?

1 here were horrible days and worse nights to
follow. I knew that all was lost. In those nights my
hatred arose against the originators of that act.

The Emperor William had been the first German
Emperor to ofl'er the hand of friendship to the leaders
of Marxism, little guessing that scoundrels are without
honour. Whilst they held the Imperial hand in theirs,
their other hand was already feeling for the dagger.

With Jews there is no bargaining—there is merely
the hard “Either—or”.

I resolved to become a politician.

GH AFTER VIII

THE START OF MY POLITICAL LIFE

AT the end of November, 1918, I returned to
Munich. I re-joined the reserve battalion of my
regiment, which was in the hands of thc “Soldiers’
Gouncils”. The whole thing was so repulsive to me
that I promptly resolved to get out of it as quickly as
I could. Accompanied by my faithful comrade in thc
War, Schmiedt Ernst, I went to Traunstein and stayed
there until the camp was broken up.

In March, 1919, we returned to Munich.

The Situation was an impossible one, and tended
irresistibly towards a further extension of the Revolu¬
tion. Eisner’s death only hastened developments and
led eventually to a dictatorship of the Councils, better
described as transitional control by the Jews, which
was the original aim and idea of those who originated
the Revolution. At that period endless schemes drove
through my head.

In the course of the new Revolution my earliest
actions drew on me the ill-will of the Central Council.
On March ayth, 1919, I was arrested early in the
inorning, but when I presented my rille at them, the
three youths lost courage and returned the way they
had come.

A few days after the liberation of Munich I was
summoned to attend a Commission to inquire into the
revolutionary events in the 2nd Infantry Regiment.
That was my first incursion into more or less pure
politics.

A few weeks after that I was ordered to attend a
“course” for members of the Defence Force. The

03

94

MY STRUGGLE

Intention underlying this was to supply the soldier with
definite principles to guide his thoughts as citizens of a
State. As far as I was concerned, its value consisted in
the fact that I should be able to make the acquaintance
of a few comrades who thought as I did, and with whom
I could thoroughly discuss the Situation of the moment.
We were all more or less convinced that Germany could
not be saved from the collapse, which was becoming
more and more imminent, by the perpetrators of the
crime of November, the Centre and Social Democratic
Parties—also that the so-called ‘‘Bourgeois-nationar^
groups could, with the best will in the world, never be
capable of repairing the damage which had been done.

This formation of a new Party was discussed in our
small circle. The ground principles, which we con-
templated, were the same which were realized later on
in the German Workers’ Party. The title of the new
Movement was to point from the Start to the possibility
of penetrating the mass of the people ; for, if it lacked
this quality, the whole work seemed pointless and super-
fluous. So we decided to call it the “Social Revolu-
tionary Party”—because the social ideas of the new
foundation did really involve a revolution.

There was, moreover, an even deeper reason. All
the attention I had devoted earlier in my life to economic
Problems had always left me more or less on the edge
of the ideas arising out of my consideration of social
Problems. It was not until later that I widened these
boundaries as a result of my consideration of Germany’s
policy of alliances. The latter was very largely the
result of a false estimate of economics, and vagueness as
to the principles on which the German nation was to
be provided with food in the future. These ideas were
based on the assumption that in all cases Capital was
merely an outcome of labour, and moreover was, like
labour itself, the basis for correcting all the factors
which can either further or restrict human activity.
This, then, was the national significance of Capital—

MY STRUGGLE

95

that it depended so entirely on the greatness, frecdom
and power of the State, i.e., the nation, that the union
of the two by itself was bound to lead to the State and
the nation being helped forward by Capital, by the
simple method of maintaining and increasing itself.
This dependent connection of Capital with the free,
independent State obliged the latter to aim at making
the nation free and powerful.

Thus the State’s duty towards Capital was coin-
paratively simple and clear. It merely had to see that
Capital remaincd the servant of the State and did not
contemplate obtaining control of the nation. In taking
this attitude the State could confine itself to two objects :
maintenance of cfficient national and independent
administration on the onc hand, and of the social rights
of the workers on the othcr. I had been unable before
then to distinguish as clearly as I should have liked
between Capital, purely the final outcome of Creative
labour, and Capital which owncd its existence exclu-
sively to speculation. I had not known how to Start
thinking about it.

The subject was now being dealt with exhaustively
bv one of the various lecturers in the course which I
mentioned abovc—Gottfried Feder.

Immediately aftcr listcning to Feder’s first lecture,
the idea entered my brain that I had at last discovered
the road to onc of the essential principles on which a
new Party might be founded.

I recognized at once that it was a question here of
a theoretic truth which would be of immense importance
to the future of the German nation. The sharp sever-
ance of Stock Exchange Capital from the finances of
the nation offered a possibility of combating inter-
nationalization of Germany’s financial administration,
without having to threaten the principle of an indepen¬
dent national existence with a struggle against Capital.
Germany’s development was too clearly before my eyes
for me not to be aware that the hardest fight would

MY STRUGGLE

9Ö

have to be foiight out not against the enemy nations
but against international Capital. Feder’s lecture gave
rne a splendid war-ciy^ for the Corning struggle.

In this case also later developments have proved
how correct our feeling was at that period. We are no
longer derided by our foolish bourgeois politicians ;
even they realize to-day, unless they lie in their throats,
that international Capital was not only the greatcst of
war-agitators, but that, even now that the War is over,
it spares no pains to turn the peace into a Hell.

For myself and all other true National-Socialists
thcre is only one doctrine : Nation and Fatherland.

What we have to fight for is security for the existence
and increase of our race and our nation, nourishment
of its children and purily of its blood, freedom and
independence for the Fatherland, and that our nation
may be able to ripen for the fulfilment of the mission
appointed for them by the Creator of the Universe.

I was beginning to learn afresh, and only now came
to a right comprehension of the teachings and intentions
of the Jcw, Karl Marx. Only now did I properly
understand his Capital^ and equally also the struggle of
Social Democracy against the econoniics of the nation,
and that its aiin is to prepare the ground for the doinina-
tion of the truly international capital of the financiers
and the Stock Exchange.

In another way also this course produced great
results. One day I announced my intention to speak.
One of those taking part thought he would break a
lance for the Jews and started to defend them in a
long argument. This roused me to Opposition. An
overwhelming majority of those present took my side.
The result was, however, that a few days later I was
ordered to join a Munich regiment, nominally as
instructor !

At that time discipline was rather slack amongst the
troops. They were suffering from the aftermath of the

MY STRUGGLE

97

period of Soldiers’ Councils. It was only by degrecs
and cautiously that the transition from obediencc ‘Ty
consent’’—the pretty way they described the pigsty
under Kurt Eisner—over to military discipline and
Subordination could be cffected. In the same way the
troops had to learn to feel and think of themselves as
members of the nation and the Fatherland. My new
activities lay in this direction. I started them full of
love and keenness.

may claim some success ; in the course of my
addresses I won hundreds, nay, thousands, of my com-
rades back to‘their nation and Fatherland. I “nation-
alized” the troops and was able so to help generally to
strcngthen discipline.

Moreover, I made the acquaintance of a nuinber of
comradcs who thought as I did and who joined me later
on inlaying the foundations of the new Movement.

G

CHAPTER IX

THE GERMAN WORKERS PARTY

O NE day I received Orders from my Headquarters to
go and find out what was going on in a society
which was apparently political, and which was to hold
a meeting during the next few days, under the name
of the “German Workers’ Party” ; Gottfried Feder
was to speak at it. I was to go to the meeting and
have a look at the people, and then make a report
The curiosity feit in the Army regarding political
parties was more than comprehensible. The Revolu¬
tion had given the soldiers a right to be active in
politics, and all of them, down to the most inexperienced,
made full use of it. But it was not until the Centre j
and Social Dcmocratic Parties realized to their sorrow
that the sympathies of the soldiers were beginning to
turn away from the revolutionary Parties towards the
National Movement and resuscitation of the country
that they saw cause for withdrawing the franchise from -
the Army and prohibiting its taking a hand in politics. •
The bourgeoisie, which was really suffering from
senile weaknesses, thought in all seriousness that the
Army would return to its former condition of being
simply part of the defences of Germany, whilst the idea
of the Centre and the Marxists was merely to draw the
dangerous poison-tooth of nationalism, without which
an Army is nothing but a perpetual police force and is
no longer a military force, capable of withstanding an
enemy ; this was amply proved in the years that
followed.

I decided to attend the above-mentioned meeting ol'
this Party, of which I had had no interior knowledge at all.

MY STRUGGLE

99

I was glad when Feder’s discourse was over. I had
seen enough and was preparing to depart, when the
announcement that anyone might now speak induced
me to stay. Nothing worth remarking seemed to be
happening, until suddenly a “professor” rose to speak,
who threw doubts on the correctness of Feder’s reasoning,
and then—after Feder had replied very well to him—
suddenly appealed to the “basic of facts” and took on
himself to suggest that the young Party was the one
best adapted to take up the struggle for cutting Bavaria
loose from Prussia. The man had the impudence to
assert that, if that happened, German-Austria would
immediately join up with Bavaria, that the Peace would
then be greatly improved for Germany, and other like
nonsense. On that I simply had to apply for leave
to speak and teil the learned gentleman my opinion
on that point—so successfully that the chairman ran
out of the building like a drenched poodle before I had
finished.

During the day I thought more than once about
the matter and was prepared to drop it for good, but
to my astonishment less than a week later I received a
post-card to say that I was admitted as a member of
the German Workers’ Party ; I was also invited to
attend a committee meeting of that Party on the
following Wednesday.

I was more than astonished at this method of getting
members and did not know whether to be annoyed or
to laugh at it. I had never imagined myself joining a
ready-made Party ; I wanted to found one for myself.
Truly, the notion had never occurred to me.

I was just going to send my answer in writing to
the authors of the invitation, when curiosity had its
way, and I resolved to be there on the day mentioned
in Order to explain my reasons by word of mouth.

Wednesday arrived. I was rather taken aback on
being told that the President of the Society for the
Reich was to be present in person. I wanted to

100

MY STRUGGLE

postpone my declaration for a bit. At last he appeared.
It was thc man who had been leading Speaker when
Feder gave his lecturc.

This made me curious again and I stayed to see
what would happen. At any ratc^ I learned the names
of diese gcntlcmcn. The President for the Organization
in the Reich was a Herr Harrer, the Munich Chairman
was Anton Drexler.

The Minutes of thc last meeting were read and a
vote of thanks given to the Iccturer.

Thcn came the clection of new members, i.e., the
business of admitting myself.

I began to ask questions. Apart from a few leading
principles there was nothing, no programme, not a
leaflet, nothing at all in print, not even a miserable
rubber stamp ; but obviously plenty of faith and good
intention.

I no longer wanted to smile.

I well knew what these men were feeling ; it was
a longing for a new Movement, which should be more
than a Party in the accepted sensc of the word.

The hardest question of my lifc confronted me. Was
I to join in with it or abstain ?

Fatc seemed to bc beckoning me. I should never
have joined onc of the existing great Parties, and I
shall cxplain my reasons more precisely. In my eyes
it seemed an advantage that this ridiculous little band,
with its handful of members, had not süffened into an
‘‘organization”, but still offered the individual a real
opening for personal activity. There was work to be
done, and the smaller the Movement was, the sooner
could it be pulled properly into shape. It was still
possible to determinc the character, objective and
methods of this society, and that was quite impossible
in the ca^e of the existing great parties.

The longer I turned it over in my mind, the more
the conviction grew in me that some small Movement
such as this one might pave the way for the national

MY STRUGGLE

lot

resurrection, but that the political parties in Parliament
never would, for they clung far too closely to obsolete
conceptions or had an interest in propping up the new
regime. , For what had to be proclaimed here was a new
theory bf the world, and not a new clection cry.

After two days of agonized meditation and question-
ing, I fipally made up my mind to take the Step. It
was the dccisive turning point of my life. Retreat was
neither possible nor desirable.

That is how I became a member of the German
Workers’ Party, and was given a provisional ticket of
membership, bearing the number “Seven”.

CHAPTER X

THE PREMONITORY SIGNS OF COLLAPSE IN THE

OLD EMPIRE

T he blow, from which the German Reich and
nation are suffering, is so heavy, that they seem
to have lost all power of feeling or reflection, äs if
seized with vertigo. It is hardly possible to recall the
former heights, so dreamlike and unreal seem the
greatness and glory of those tim es compared with the
present inisery ; which explains why men are only too
easily dazzled by greatness and forget to seek for the
premonitory signs of the great collapse, which, never-
theless, must have been present in some form.

These signs were visibly present, although very few
tried to glean any definite teaching from them. This
is necessary to-day more than ever.

Most people new in Germany now recognize the
German collapse merely by the general economic
poverty and its results. Almost everyone is personally
affected by it—an excellent reason for every individual
to realize the catastrophe. The people as a whole
connect the collapse with political, cultural or moral
questions. Many lack both feeling and understanding
for it.

That this is so with the masses goes without question ;
but the fact that the intelligent sections of the Com¬
munity regard the collapse first of all as an ‘‘economic
catastrophe” and think that recovery must come from
the side of economics is one of the reasons why, so far,
no eure has been possible. Not until it is realized that
economics can only come second, or even third, and
that factors of ethics and race must come first, will

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103

there be understanding of the causes of the present
, unhappiness, or a possibility of discovering means and
I methods of curing it.

The easiest, and therefore the most commonly
believed, reason for our misfortunes is that the loss of
the War was the cause of the present rot.

Probably there are many who seriously bclieve this
nonsense, but there are even more in whose lips such
an argument is a conscious lie. This last applies to all
those who are crowding round the governmental feeding
trough.

Did not the apostles of world-reconciliation declare
that the German defeat merely destroyed a militarism ?
that the German people would rejoice in their glorious
resurrection ? For was not the whole Revolution
ushered in with the phrase that by it victory was with-
held from the German Standard, but that by it alone
the German nation would fully attain to liberty at
home and abroad ? Was this not so, you lying rascals?

It is characteristic of truly Jewish impudence that
the military defeat is now put down as the cause of the
collapse, whilst the central organ of all treason, the Vorwärts
of Berlin, wrote that this time the German nation was
not to be permitted to bring its banners home in
victory ! Is this now to be taken as the cause of our
collapse ?

The answer to the assertion that the loss of the War
is the cause may be answered as follows :

Of course, the loss of the War had a fearful effect
on the destiny of our country, but it was not a cause,
but a result of causes. All intelligent and well-wishing
people well know that an unhappy ending of that life
and death struggle must lead to disastrous results. But
there were people, unfortunately, whose reasoning
powers seemed to fall them at the proper moment, or
who, although they knew better, fought against that
truth and denied it. They are really the guilty causes
of the collapse, and not the loss of the War, as they

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now suddcnly choosc to maintain. For tlic loss of the
War was increly the result of their action, and not, as
ihey now assert, due to ^^bad leadership . The enemy
were not composed of cowards, they too knew how to
die ; from the very first day they were more in number
than the German Army, and for their technical arma-
ments they had the whole world in their Service , and
yet we cannot get rid of the fact that the German
victories, which continued through four ycars of hard
fighting against the whole world, were due, apart from
all the heroism and fine Organization, solely to con-
summate leadership. The Organization and leader¬
ship of the German Army were the greatest the world
has ever seen. The failures lay in the limitations of

human powers of resistance.

The collapse of that Army was not the cause of our
present misfortunes, but merely the consequence of
other crimes, one of which ushered in a furthcr collapse,
and this time an obvious one.

Are nations, in fact, ever ruincd by the loss of a
war, and by that alone ? This can be very briefiy

answered.

It is always so, if the military defeat of the nation
has been due to lazincss, cowardice, want of charactcr,
in fact, unworthincss on that nation’s part. If it is not
so, the military^ defeat will become a spur to a greater
recovery in future, and not the tombstonc of the nation.

History provides innumerable instances to prove the

correetness of this Statement.

Germany’s militar)' defeat was, alas ! not an
undeserved catastrophe, but a merited chastisement of
eternal retribution. The defeat was more than deserved

bv US.

If the front, left to itself, had really given way, and
if the national disaster had been really due to failure,
the German nation would have accepted the defeat in
quite another spirit. They would have borne the

MY STRUGGLE

105

tnisfortune which followed with clenched teeth, or would
have been overwhelmed by sorrow. Rage and fury
would have filled their hearts against the tricks played
by fortune or against the enemy to whom destiny had
given the victory. Therc would have been neither
mirth nor dancing, cowardice would not have swellcd
with pride and giorified the defeat, the fighting troops
would not have been mocked at and their colours
dragged in the dirt; but, above all, that disgraceful
state of affairs would never have arisen which induced
a British officer, Colonel Repington, to proclaim with
scorn : '‘Every third German is a traitor.”

No—the military collapse was itself but the con-
sequencc of a series of unhealthy manifestations and of
those who promoted them ; they had already been
infecting the nation in times of peace. The defeat was
the first visible catastrophic result of a moral poisoning,
a wcakening of the will to sclf-preser\^ation, and of
doctrines which had begun many ycars previously to
undermine the foundations of nation and Reich.

It was natural that the whole abysmal lying spirit of
Jewry and the fighting Organization of Marxisrn should
sec to it that the very man should be burdened with
direct responsibility for the disaster, who all by himself
attempted with superhuman will and energy to divert
the catastrophe which he had forescen, and to save the
nation from a period of deep pain and huiiiiliation. By
taxing Ludendorff with the responsibility for losing the
World War, they took the wcapon of moral justification
out of the hand of the only adversary dangcrous enough
to be likely to succeed in bringing the betrayers of the
Fatherland to justice.

We may almost regard it a great stroke of luck for
the German nation that the period of creeping sickness
came to a head and was stemmed so suddenly in that
terrible catastrophe ; for if things had happened dif-
ferently the nation would have gone on to ruin, more

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MY STRUGGLE

slowly perhaps, but also more surely. The disease
would have become chronic, whereas, in the acute form
of the disaster, it at least became clear and obvious to j
the eyes of a considerable number of observers. It was {
not by accident that men conquered the plague more
easily than tuberculosis. The first comes in terrifying i
waves of dcath and gives a shock to mankind, the other |
creeps on slowly ; the first induces terror, the other |
gradual indifference. The result is that men fight the
first with the whole of their energy, whilst they try to
stop consumption with feeble methods. Thus men
conquered the plague, but tuberculosis conquers them.
The same applies to diseases of the body politic.

In the long peace of the pre-war years certain evils
appeared and were recognized as evils, although
practically no attention was paid to the causes of them
—with certain exceptions. These exceptions were,
first and foremost, the phenomena in the economic life
of the nation, which struck individual people more
keenly than the evils which appeared in many other
directions.

There were many signs of decay which ought to have
induced serious thought. t

The amazing increase of population of Germany
before the War brought the question of providing the
essential nourishment into a more and more prominent
place in all political and economic thought and action.
But, unfortunately, they could not make up their minds
to go straight to the onc correct solution, for they
imagined they could attain their object by chcaper
methods. Renunciation of the idca of acquiring fresh
territory and Substitution for it,of the craze for economic
conquest, was bound to lead in the end to limitless and
injurious industrialization.

The first and most fatal result was the enfeeblement
of the agricultural dass, which it brought about. In
Proportion as this dass sank, the Proletariat crowded in

I

i

I

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MY STRUGGLE

MY SiRUGGLE 107

the )arge towns, grew in numbers, until finally equi-
librium was utterly lost.

The violent cleavage between rieh and poor now
became prominent. Superfluity and poverty lived so
dose side by side that the consequences were bound to
be deplorable. Poverty and great unemployment began
to play havoc with the people and left discontent and
embitterment behind them.

There were even worse phenomena involved by the
industrialization of the nation. Along with the definite
establishment of Commerce as mistress of the State,
money became a god, whom all had to serve and before
whom everyone must bow. A period of demoralization
began, especially bad because it set in at a time when
the nation needed more than ever heroic inspiration of
the highest order at an hour when danger was pre-
sumably menacing it. Germany ought to have been pre-
paring to support with the sword her effort to make sure of
her daily bread by means of “peaceful economic labours”.

Unfortunately, domination by money received sanc-
tion in the very quarter which ought to have been most
opposed to it. It was a particularly unhappy inspira¬
tion when His Majesty induced the nobility to enter the
circle of the new finance. It must be admitted in
excuse for him that even Bismarck failed to realize the
danger, but in practice it drove the ideal virtues into
the second place behind that of money, for it was clear
that having once taken that road, the nobility of the
sword would very soon have to play second fiddle to
that of finance.

Before the War internationalization of German
Business was already on its way, travelling by the
by-paths of share issues. A section of German industry
did make a determined attempt to avert the danger,
but in the end it feil a victim to the combined attacks
of greedy Capital, greatly assisted by its trusty friends, the
Marxist movement.

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MY STRUGGLÜ

The persistent war against thc “heavy industries’’ ot
Germany was the visible Start of the internationalization,
which was bcing striven for with the help of Marxism,
and thc only possible way of completing the work was ^
by a victory for Marxism in the Revolution. As I
write thesc words, success is attending the general ;
attack on the German State Railways, which are to bc
turned over to the international capitalists, Thiis
“International” Social Democracy has once again
attained one of its main objectives.

The best evidence of the success of the industrializing ;
process in Germany is thc fact that when the War was
over one of thc leaders of German industry and trade
was able to state his opinion that commerce was the
one force which could set Germany on her Icgs again.
These words, uttered by Stinncs, caused incrcdible con- '
fusion ; but they werc caught up and have become
with startiing rapidity thc motto of all the humbugs
and chatterers who in thc guise of “Statesmen” have
been squandering the fortuncs of Germany sincc the
Revolution.

One of the worst evidences of dccadcnce in Germany
before the War was the universal half-heartcdness that
was displayed morc and morc in everything that was,
undertakeri. It is always a result of a man s unccr-
tainty about a thing, and thc pusillanimity arising from,^
that and other causes. The System of cducation wasv
the cause of this defect.

Thcre were a great number of weak points in German
education before the War. It was fashioned on a one-
sided System with a view to mere knowledge and very
little with a view to producing practical ability. Still
less score was set on formation of character, very little
on encouraging the joy of responsibility, and none
at all on cultivation of will-power and decision. The
result of this was not the strong man, but rather the
pliable possessor of much knowledge—and that was

MY STRUGGLE

109

what we Germans were universally considered to be
befo^ the War and for which we enjoyed consideration.
The^ German was liked because he was a useful man,
but owing to the weakness of his will-power he was
little respected. There was a good reason for his
dropping nationality and Fatherland more easily than
almost any other nation. That fine proverb ; “With
one’s hat in one’s hand we can go all over the world”,
describes it all.

This pliability became disastrous when it governed
the form under which alone the Monarch might be
approached. The form insisted on no answering back,
but agreement with everything which His Majesty chose
to ordain. And yet it was in that quarter that the
dignity of a free man was most needed ; otherwise
such subservience was bound one day to be the ruin
of thc Monarchy.

This is good enough for toadies by profession, but
all proper men—and the best men in the State still are
that—will only feel repulsion when such nonsense is
defended. For them history is history and truth is
truth, even when a Monarch is concerned. No, the
happiness of possessing a great man and a great Monarch
combined is so seldom the lot of nations that they have
to be content if cruel destiny at least spares them a
terrible misfit.

Thus the virtue and significance of the monarchical
idea cannot rest essentially in the person of the Monarch,
unless Heaven deigns to set the crown on the brow of
a brilliant hero such as Frederick the Great, or a wise
character such as William I. This may happen once in
several centuries—hardly oftener. Otherwise the con-
ception takes precedence of the person, and its signi¬
ficance has to rest exclusively and intrinsically on the
institution, and the Monarch himself enters the circle
of those who serve it.

One result of wroug-headed education was fear of

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MY STRUGGLE

shouldering responsibility and the consequent weak-
ness in the handiing of essential problems.

I will pick a few cases out of the mass of instances
which occur to me.

In Journalist circles it is customary to describe the
Press as a “Great Power” within the State. It is true
that its importance is actually immense. It is hardly
possible to over-estimate it—what it does is really to
continue education up to an advanced age.

It is an essential interest of State and nation to see
that the people do not fall into the hands of bad,
ignorant, or indeed ill-disposed teachers. It is the
State’s duty, therefore, to watch over the people’s
education and prevent its taking a wrong direction, and
it should keep an eye on what the Press, in particular,
is doing, for its influence on men is by far the strongest
and most penetrating of all, since its action is not
transitory but continuous. Its immense importance
lies in the uniform and persistent repetition of its
teaching. Here, if anywhere, it is the State’s duty not
to forget that, whatever it does, must be directed at one
aim, and one alone ; it must not be led astray by the
will o’ the wisp of so-called “freedom of the Press”, or
be persuaded into neglecting its duties and withholding
the nourishment, which the nation needs to keep it
healthy. It must keep control of that Instrument of
populär education with absolute determination and
place it at the Service of the State and the nation.

What the so-called Liberal Press did before the
War was to dig a grave for the German nation and
tJie German Reich. We need say nothing about the
lying Marxist papers ; to them lying is as much a
necessary of life as mewing is to a cat. Their sole
object is to break the national and populär powers of
resistance, to prepare them for the slavery of inter¬
national Capital and of their masters, the Jews.

What did the State do to counteract this Wholesale
poisoning of the nation ? Nothing, absolutely nothing !

MY STRUGGLE iii

A few feeble warnings, a few fines for offences too
egregious to be overlooked, and that was all.

The defence put up by Government in those days
against the Press—controlled mainly by Jews—which
was slowly corrupting the nation, followed no definite
line nor had it determination ; but worse than all it
had no fixed objective. The Intelligence of the officials
entirely missed the point, both in estimating the import¬
ance of the struggle, choice of methods and Settlement
of a definite plan. They tinkered with it ; now and
then, if too sorely bitten, they scotched some jour-
nalistic viper for a few weeks, or even months, but they
always let the nest of snakes continue in peace as
before.

For imperfectly educated, superficial readers the
Frankfurter JZ^itung is the essence of respectability. It
never uses rough expressions, deprecates brüte force and
always writes in favour of fighting with “intellectual”
weapons, and this appeals curiously enough to the least
intellectual people.

But it is just for our semi-intellectual classes that
the Jew writes in his so-called “Intelligenzia Press”.
The tone of Frankfurter Leitung and Berliner Tageblatt is
intended to appeal to them, and it is they who are
influenced by those papers. Whilst they most carefully
avoid all coarseness of language, they use other vessels
for pouring the poison into the hearts of their readers.
In a medley of charming expression they lull their
readers into believing that pure knowledge and moral
truth are the driving force of their actions, whereas
really it is a cunning contrivance for stealing a weapon
which their opponents might use against the Press.

Readiness to be content with half-measures is the
outward sign of inward decadence, and a national
collapse is sure to follow sooner or later.

I believe that our present generation, if rightly led,

II2

MY STRUGGLE

will more easily master this danger. It has had certain
experiences calculated to stiffen the nervcs of anyone
who has not completely missed the meaning of them.
Certain it is that some time or other the Jew will cry
out loudly in his newspapers, once a hand is laid on
his bcloved nest by putting an end to the disgraceful
usc of the Press, and once that Instrument for education
is brought iiito the Service of the State and is no longer
left in the hands of aliens and cncmics of the iiation
I believc that it will be less of a bürden to us younger
ones than it was to our fathers. A thirty-centimeter
grenade always hisses louder than a thousand Jewish
newspaper vipers—so let them hiss !

The whole of education should be designed so as to
occupy a boy’s free time in profitable cultivation of his
body. He has no right during those ycars to loaf about
idly and make disturbances in the streets and picture
houses, but after his day’s work is done he ought to
harden his young body, so that life may not find him
soft whcn he enters it. To prepare for this and to
carry it out is the function of youthful education, and
not merely to pump in so-called knowledge. It must
rid itself of the notion that management of the body is
the business of the individual alone. No one should be
free to sin at the expense of posterity, that is, of the
race.

The fight against the poisoning of the soul must be
waged in Company with cultivation of the body.
To-day all our life in public is like a forcing-bed for
sexual ideas and attractions. Look at the bill of fare
ofFered by the cinemas, playhouses and variety theatres,
and you can hardly deny that this is not the right food,
especially for the young. Hoardings and advertisement
kiosks unitc in drawing the public’s attention in the
vulgarest ways. Anyone who has not lost the capacity
for entering into the souls of the young will rcalize that
it must lead to their very grave injury.

MY STRUGGLE

113

The life of the p>eople must be freed from the
asphyxiating perfumc of our modern eroticism, as it
must be from unmanly and prudish refusal to face facts.
In all these things the aim and the method must be
governed by the thought of preserving our nation’s
health both in body and soul. The right to personal
freedom comes scepnd in importance to the duty of
maintaining the rade.

Similar unhealthiness was observable in almost
every dornain of art and Kultur. It was a sad sign of
our internal decadence that it was impossible to let
young people visit most of the so-called “homes of art”
{Kunststatte), considering what was shamelcssly exposed
to public view with the warning—universal in the
Panoptica —‘Tor adults only”.

To think that such precautionary rneasures should
be necessary in the very placcs which ought to be first
to provide material for forming the youth, not for
amusing their blase clders ! What would the great
dramatists of all times have said to such a warning and
to the cause which made it necessary ? Imagine the
indignation of Schiller—how Goethe would have turned
from it in fury !

But, indeed, what are Schiller, Goethe or Shake¬
speare in comparison with the heroes of the new German
poetry ? Worn out and obsolete, altogether passe.
For it is characteristic of the period not only that they
produce nothing but filth, but that, in addition, they
throw mud at all that was really great in the past.

Thus the saddest side of the condition of our national
Kultur in the period before the War was not merely the
complete impotence of our Creative power in art and
general culture, but also the spirit of hatred in which
the memories of the greater past were besmirched and
blotted out. In almost every dornain of art, particularly
in the drama and literature, all round the turn of the
Century, they produced less and less any new thing of

H

MY STRUGGLE

114

importance, whilst they disparaged the best age and
called it inferior and obsolete ; as if this present epoch
could ever conquer any part of its shameful inferiority.

A study of religious conditions before the War will
show how everything got into a state of disintegration.
Even in this domain large sections of the nation had
entirely lost all solid and comprehensive conviction. In
this those who were openly and olFicially at variance
with the Church played a smaller part than those who
were merely indifferent. Both creeds maintain missions
in Asia and Africa for the purpose of attracting fresh
adherents to their doctrines—an aspiration which can
show but very moderate results in comparison with the
progress made by the Mohammedan faith—whereas in
Europe they are continually losing millions and millions
of genuine adherents, who either are entirely estranged
from the religious life or simply go their own way. The
consequences, from the point of view of morals, are far
from good.

There are many signs of a struggle, every day
increasing in violence, against the dogmatic principles
of the various Churches, without which, in practice,
religious belief is inconceivable in this world of humanity.
The general mass of a nation do not consist of philo-
sophers ; faith for them is very largely the sole basis
for a moral view of life. The various attempts to lind
Substitutes have not proved so suitable or successful as
to be obviously a good exchange for the formet religious
confessions. If religious doctrine and faith really get a
grip on the mass of the people, the absolute authority
of that faith is then the whole basis of its efficacy.
What then ordinary custom is for the general life—and
without it thousands of men of superior culture would,
no doubt, live reasonably and successfully, but millions
of others would not—the Law is for the State, and
dogma is for ordinary religion. It, and it alone,
can defeat the unsteady, perpetually controverted.

MY STRUGGLE

"5

intellectual conception and mould it into a form, without
which faith could never exist. In the other event the
conception of a metaphysical view of life—in other
words, Philosophie opinion—could never have grown
out of it. The attack upon dogma is in itself, therefore,
very like the struggle against the general legal principles
of the State, ahd just as the latter would end in com-
plete State anafiphy, the former would end in hopeless
religious nihilisni.

A politician, however, must estimate the value of a
religion, not so much in connection with the faults
inherent in it, but in relation to the advantages of a
Substitute which may be manifestly better. But until
some such substitute appears, only fools and criminals
will destroy what is there on the spot.

The fact that many people in pre-war Germany
feit a distaste for the religious life must be ascribed to
the misuse made of Christianity by the so-callecl
“Christian” Party, and to the shamelessness of the
attempt to identify the Catholic Faith with a political
party.

This fatal aberration provided opportunities for a
number of worthless members of Parliament, but it
caused injury to the Church.

But it was the whole nation that had to bear the
consequences, seeing that the results it brought about
in slackening religious life feil during a period when
everything was beginiiing to slacken and shift, and
traditional principles of morals and behaviour were
threatening to collapse.

These rifts and cracks in the fabric of our nation
might have gone on without danger, so long as no
special strain was put upon them, but they were bound
to cause disaster, supposing a rush of great events con-
verted the question of the nation’s internal solidarity
into one of decisive importance.

In the domain of politics also an observant eye could

MY STRUGGLE

116

mark evils which, unless alterations and improvements
were soon taken in hand, were bound to count as
indications of the approaching decay of the Empire’s
external and domestic policy.

Therc were plenty who watched thesc indications
with anxiety and censured the lack of plan and thought
in the policy of the Empire ; they knew its inner weak-
ness and hollowness very well, but they were but mcre
Outsiders in political life. Officialdom in the Govern¬
ment ignored the intuitions of a Houston Stewart
Chamberlain with the same indifferencc as they do
to-day. These people are too stupid to think out any-
thing for themselves and too conceited to Icarn what is
needed from othcrs.

One of the thoughtless obscrvations which one is
apt to hear quoted to-day, is that the Parliamentary
System ‘‘has been a failure since the Revolution”. This
gives rise too easily to the assumption that it w^as any
different before the Revolution. In reality, the only
effect of that institution is, and can be, only a destruc-
tive one, and this it was at a time when most people
chose to wcar blinkers, and saw nothing or chose to
see nothing. For the fall of Germany was not a little
due to that institution.

Whatever feil under the influencc of Parliament was
done by halves, however one looks at it.

The Empire’s policy of alliances was a weak half-
measure. Though they wished to maintain peace, they
could not help steering straight for war.

The Polish policy was a half-measure. They irritated
the Poles without ever tackling the question seriously,
The result was neither a victory for Germany nor con-
ciliation of the Poles, whereas they made an enemy of
Russia.

The solution of the question of Alsace-Lorraine was
a half-measure. Instead of brutally, once and for all,
knocking the French hydra on the head, allowing,

MY STRUGGLE

117

howevcf, equal rights to the Alsatians, they did neither.
Moreov^r, they could do nothing. The chief betrayers
of their/ country kept their places in the ranks of the
great—Wettcrle, for instance, in the Centre
Party.

Whilst Jewry, through its Marxist and Democratic
Press, broadcasted lies about German ''militarism” over
the wholc world and tried to injure Germany by every
means in its powcr, the Marxist and Democratic Parties
refused to considcr any comprehensive measure for com-
pleting the national forces of Germany.

The loss of the struggle for the freedom and inde-
pcndence of the German nation is the result of the
pcace-timc half-heartedness and weakness in calling up
the combined strength of the nation in defence of the
Fatherland.

One evil effect of the Monarchical System was that
it increasingly persuaded a very large section of the
nation that, as a matter of course, government was from
above, and that the individual had no need to trouble
himself about it. As long as government was really
good, or at least meant well, matters went satisfactorily.
But, alas ! supposing a well-meaning old government
was replaced by a fresh and less conscientious one !
Then passive obedience and childlike faith were the
worst evil imaginable.

But against thesc and other weaknesses there were

points of undoubted valuc.

First of all, stability in the State leadership secured
by the monarchical form of State, and withdrawal of
all places under the State from the turmoil of speculation
by greedy politicians ; also the intrinsic dignity of the
institution and the authority which this engendered ;
elevation of the officials as a body and of the Army
far above the obligations of Party politics. Then the
advantages due to the personal embodiment of the
headship of the State in the person of the Monarch, and

ii8

MY STRUGGLE

the example of responsibility, which is laid upon the
Monarch more heavily than on the chance of a parlia-
mentary majority—the proverbial purity of German
administration was ascribable to this first and foremost.

The Army taught certain ideals and self-sacrifice for
the Fatherland and its greatness, whilst in other callings
greed and materialism had taken fast hold. It taught
national unity as against division into classes, and
perhaps its only failing was the institution of one-year
volunteers. This was a failing because it broke through
the principle of absolute equality and separated the
better educated from the general military community ;
whereas the opposite would have been an advantage.
Considering the exclusiveness of our upper classes and
their increasing estrangement from their own people,
the Army might have worked as a blessing if it avoided,
at any rate, isoiating the so-called intelligenzia within
its ranks. It was a fault that it was not so ; but what
institution on this earth is faultless ? But in spite of
that the good side was so preponderant that the few
iapses were much under the average of human imper-
fections.

The greatest Service performed by the Army of the
old Empire was that in an epoch of general counting
by majority of heads it placed the heads above the
majority. Against the Jewish-democratic idea of blind
worship of majorities the Army held aloft that of faith
in Personality ; for it taught what the later period most
needed. In the sink of general softness and effeminacy
there shot up in the ranks of the Army each year
350,000 young men in the pride of their strength,
who in two years’ training forgot the softness of youth
and acquired bodies strong as Steel. It was only by
those two years of obedience that a young man learned
to command. One knew the trained soldier by his
gait.

This was the school for the German nation, and it

MY STRUGGLE

119

was not for no reason that the inveterate hatred of
iliose whose envy and greed required that the State
sliould be powerless and its citizens weaponless was

('oiicentrated upon it.

/

/

/ I

To the form of State and the Army were added the
iiicomparable body of officials in the old Empire.

Germany was the best organized and best adminis-
tcred country in the world. However much one might
call the German State officials pedantic bureaucrats,
this was no better in other States ; on the contrary, it
was worse. Other States did not possess that wonderful
solidity of the apparatus or the character of incorruptible
lionour in those who belonged to it. Better to be rather
pedantic, if honest and faithml, than enlightened and
modern if, at the same time, inferior in character and
— as often happens to-day—ignorant and incompetent.

The German official body and administrative
machinery were especially distinguished by their inde-
pendence of individual Governments, whose transitory
ideas in politics could not affect the position of the
(xerman State officials. The Revolution altered all
this fundamentally. Party considerations supplanted
ability and competence, and an upstanding, independent
('haracter was more a disadvantage than a recom-
rnendation.

On these three, the form of State, the Army and the
body of officials, rested the wonderful strength and
effectiveness of the old Empire.

CHAPTER XI

NATION AND RAGE

^ I ^HERE are numberless cxamples in history, showing
Jl with terriblc plainness bow each time Aryan blood
became mixed with that of inferior peoples the rcsult
has beeil the end of the culture-sustaining race. North
America, the population of which consists for the most
part of Germanic clements, which mixed very little with
inferior coloured nations, displays hurnanity and culturc
very different from that of Central and South America,
in which the settlers, inainly Latin in origin, mingled
their blood very freely with that of the aborigincs.
Taking the above as an example, we clearly recognize
the effects of racial intermixture. The man of Ger¬
manic race on the continent of America, having kept
himself pure and unmixed, has risen to be its master ;
and he will remain master so long as he does not fall
into the shame of mixing the blood.

Perhaps the pacifist-humane idca is quite a good
one in cases where the man at the top has first
thoroughly conquered and subdued the world to the
extent of making himself solc master of it. Thcn the
principle, when applied in practice, will not affect the
mass of the people injuriously. Thus, first the struggle
and then pacifism. Otherwise it means that hurnanity
has passed the highest point in its development, and the
end is not domination by any ethical idea, but barbarism,
and chaos to follow. Somc will natiirally laugh at this,
but this planet travelled through the ether for millions .
of years devoid of hurnanity, and it can only do so ^
again if men forget that they owe their higher existence

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MY STRUGGLE

I2I

lot to the ideas of a rnad ideologue, but to uiider-
stariding and ruthless application of agc-old natural
lavvs.

All that we admire on this earth—Science, art,
irchnical skill and invention—is the Creative product
of only a small number of nations, and originally,
|K-rhaps, of one single race. All this culture depends
Oll them for its very existence. If they are ruined,
lliey carry with them all the beauty of this earth into
ilie grave.

If we divide the human race into thrce categories
— founders, maintainers and destroyers of culture—
j t he Ary'an stock alone can be considered as representing
I die first category.

] The Aryan races—often in absurd ly small numbers
overthrow allen nations, and favoured by the num-
l'crs of people of lower grade who are at their disposal
1.1 aid them, they proceed to develop, according to the
special conditions for life in the acquired territories—
lertility, climate, etc., the qualities of intellect and
Organization which are dormant in them. In the
cotirse of a few centuries they create cultures originally
slamped with their own character of the land and the
people which they have conquered. As times goes on,
liowevcr, the conquerors sin against the principle of
keeping the blood pure (a principle which they adhered
Io at first) and begin to blend with the original inhabi-
i.ints whom they have subjugated, and end their own
existence as a pcculiar people ; for the sin committed
in Paradise was inevitably followed by expulsion.

From all time Creative nations have been Creative
(lirough and through, whether superficial observers do
or do not realize it. Nothing but completcd accom-
plishment enforces recognition on such people, for
most men in this world are incapable of perceiving
genius in itself, but only the outward signs of it in the

(22

MY STRUGGLE

form of inventions, discoveries, buildings, paintings,
etc. Even then it takes a long time bcfore they arrive
at comprehending it. Just as in the life of a great
individual, genius, or indeed any uncommon char-
acteristic, strives, under the spur of special induce-
ments, to work out expression on itself in practical
ways, so, in the life of nations, actual application of the
Creative forces, which are in them, is not produced
except at the call of certain definite circumstances.
We see this most clearly in the race which was and is
the carrier of human cultural development—the Aryan,

For the development of the higher culture it was
necessary that men of lower civilization should have
existed, for none but they could be a subsdtute for the
Technical Instrument without which higher develop¬
ment was inconceivable. ln its beginnings human
culture certainly depended less on the tamed beast and
more on employment of inferior human material.

It was not until the conquered races had been
enslaved that a like fate feil on the animal world ; the
contrary was not the case, as many would like to
believe. For it was the slave who first drew the plough,
and after him the horse. None but pacifist fools can
look on this as yet another token of human depravity ;
others must see clearly that this development was
bound to happen in Order to arrive at a state of things
in which those apostles are able to loose their foolish
talk on the world.

Human progress is like ascending an endless ladder ;
a man cannot climb higher unless he has first mounted
the lowest rung. Thus the Aryan had to follow the
road leading him to realization, and not the one which
exists in the dreams of a modern pacifist.

But the road which the Aryan had to tread was
clearly marked out. As a conqueror he overthrew the
inferior men, and their work was done under his con-
trol, according to his will and for his purposes. But

MY STRUGGLE

123

wliile extracting usefiil, if hard, work out of his subject,
lie not only protected their lives, but also perhaps gave
Ihcm an existence better than their former so-called
licedom. As long as he continued to look on himself
as the overlord, he not only maintained his mastery
but he was also the upholder and festerer of culture.
Hut as soon as the subjects began to raise themselves
and probably—to assimilate their language to that of
ihe conqueroi, the sharp barrier between lord and
s( rvant feil. The Aryan renounced purity of his own
blood and with it his right to stay in the Eden which
lic had created for himself. He sank, overwhelmed in
die mixing of races, and by degrees lost for ever his
(apacity for civilization until he began to resemble
the subjected aboriginal race more than his fathers had
done, both in niind and body. For a time he could
Süll enjoy the blessings of civilization, but first indiffer-
(‘uce set in, and finally oblivion.

T his is how civilizations and empires break up to
inake room for new Creations.

Blood-mixtiire, and the lowering of tlie racial level
v\hich accompanies it, are the one and only cause why
old civilizations disappear. It is not lost wars which
I uin mankind, but loss of the powers of resistance,
which belong to purity of blood alone.

There is in our German language a word which is
liiiely descriptive—readiness to obey the call of duty
{Pfiichter-fullung )—Service in the general interest.

The idea underlying such an attitude we call
idealism, in contradistinction to egoism ; and by it we
I inderstand the capacity for self-sacrifice in the indi¬
vidual for the Community, for his fellow men.

It is at times when ideals are threatening to dis-
.ippear that we are able to observe an immediate
(liminution of that strength, which is the essence of
die Community and a necessary condition of culture.
'Then selfishness becomes the governing force in a
iiation, and in the hunt after happiness the ties of

124

MY STRUGGLE

Order are loosened and men fall out of heaven straight j
into hell. j

The exact opposite of the Aryan is the Jew. In
hardly any nation in the world is the instinct of self-
preservation more strongly developed than in the
‘^Chosen People”. The best proof of this is the facl
that that race still continues to exist. Where is there a |
people which for the last two thousand ycars has shown
so little change in internal characteristics as the Jewish
race ? What race, in fact, has bcen involvcd in greatcr'
revolutionary changes than that onc, and yet has sur-
vived intact after the most tcrrific catastrophes ? How
their determined will to live and to maintain the type
is expressed by these facts !

The Jcw’s intellectual qualities were developed in
the course of centuries. To-day we think him ‘^cun-
ning”, and in a certain sense it was the same at every
epoch. But his intellectual capacity is not the resuh
of personal development, but of cducation by
forcigners.

Thus since the Jew never possessed a culturc of his
own, the bases of his intellectual activity have always
been supplied by others. His intellect has in all
periods been developed by contact with surrounding
civilizations. Never the opposite.

It is utterly incorrect to point to the fact that the
Jews hold together in struggling with their fellow-men
—or rather in plundering them—and concludc from it
that they have a certain ideal of self-sacrificc.

Even in this the Jew is guided by nothing more nor
less than pure sclf-sceking ; and that is why the Jewish
State—which is supposed to be the living organism for
maintaining and increasing a race—is entircly without
frontiers. For the conception of a State with definite
boundaries always implies the idealistic sentiment of a
race within the State, also a proper conception of the

MY STRUGGLE

^^5

meaning of work as an idea. The masses, which have
not this conception, lack ambition to form or even main-
lain a State with definite boundaries. There is thus
HO basis on which a culture may be built up.

Thus, the Jewish nation, with all its obvious intel-
IcTtual qualities, has no real culturc—certainly none
pcculiar to itself. For whatever culture the Jew
iippears to posscss to-day is in the main the property
of' other peoples, which has become corrupted under
bis manipulation.

Originally, the Aryan was probably a nomad, and
ilicn, as time went on, he becamc scttled ; this, if
iiothing eise, proves that he was never a Jew ! No, the
Jew is not a nomad, for even the nomad had already a
definite attitude toward the conception “work”, destined
i( serve as a basis for further development, so far as he
possessed the neccssary intellectual qualifications, But
he did possess the power of forming Ideals, if in a very
r arified form, so that his conception of life may have
been allen, but not unsympathetic, to the Aryan races.
In the Jew, however, that conception has no place ;
he never was a nomad, but was ever a parasitc in the
bodies of other nations. His having on occasion
(Icserted his former spherc of life was not on all fours
with his intentions, but was the consequence of his
being at various periods ejected by the nations whose
liospitality he had abused. His propagation of himself
ihroughout the world is a typical phenomenon with all
|)arasites ! He is always looking for fresh feeding-
ground for his race.

His life within other nations can be kept up in per-
petuity only if he succeeds in impressing the view that
with him it is not a question of a race but of a “religious
l»ond”, one, however, peculiar to himself. This is the
lirst great lie !

In Order to continue existing as a parasite within
ilie nation, the Jew must set to work to deny his real

126

MY STRUGGLE

inner nature. The more intelligent the individual
Jew is, the better will he succeed in his deception—
even to the extent of making large sections of the popula-
tion seriously believe that the Jew genuinely is a
Frenchman or an Englishman, a German or an Italian,
though of a different religion.

The present vast economic development is leading
to a change in the social stratification of the nation.
The small Industries are gradually dying out, making
it rarer for the worker to be able to secure a decent
existence and visibly driving him to become one of the
Proletariat dass. The outcome of all this is the
“factory worker”, whose essential distinguishing mark
is that he is practically unable in later life to take up
life as an individual. In the truest sense of the word
he is possessionless ; old age means suffering to him
and can hardly be called life at all.

There was once a similar Situation at an earlier
period which was urgently in need of solution ; a
Solution was discovered. On retirement officials and
servants, especially of the State, turned into farm
labourers and artizans. They also were possessionless
in the true sense. The State found a way out of that
unhealthy condition of things ; it assumed responsi-
bility for the welfare of its servant, who was unable*
himself to provide for his old age, and instituted the
Pension on retirement. Thus, a whole dass left with-
out possessions was skilfully delivered from social
misery and incorporated in the body of the nation.

Of late years the State and nation has had to face
the same question on a far larger scale. Fresh masses
of people, amounting to millions, were constantly
removing from the villages to the large towns to earn
a living as factory workers in the new industries.

Thus a new dass has actually come into being, to
which but little attention has been paid, and a day
will come when it will have to be asked whether the

MY STRUGGLE

127

nation will have strength by its own efforts once more
Io incorporate the new dass in the general community,
or whether the distinction of dass and dass is to
broaden into a rift.

While the bourgeoisie has been ignoring this most
(lifficult question and letting things happen as they
|)lease, the Jew has been considering the boundless
I )ossibilities which present themselves as regards the
liiture. On the one hand he is making use of his
capitalistic meihods for exploiting humanity to the
very full, and on the other he is getting ready to sacri-
lice his sway and very soon will come out as their
Icader in the fight against himself. ‘‘Against himself”
is, of course, only a figurative expression, for the great
master of lies knows very well how to emerge with
iipparently clean hands ard bürden others with the
hlame. Since he has the impudence to lead the masses
m person, it never occurs to the latter that it is the
most infamous betrayal of all time.

The Jew’s procedure is as follows :

He addresses himself to the workers, pretends to
liave pity for their lot or indignation at their misery
and poverty, in Order to gain their confidence. He
lakes trouble to study the real or imaginary hardness
of their lives, and to arouse a longing of a change of
(‘xistence. With untold cleverness he intensifies the
demand for social justice dormant in all men of Aryan
stock, and so stamps the struggle for removal of social
cvils with a quite definite character of universal world
importance. He founds the doctrine of Marxism.

By mingling it inextricably with a whole mass of
(lemands which are socially justifiable, he ensures the
popularity of the doctrine, whilst on the other hand he
(^auses decent people to be unwilling to Support demands
which, being presented in such a form, appear wrong
(rom the Start, nay, impossible of realization. For

128

MY STRUGGLE

undcr thc cloak of purcly social ideas thcre lic hidden j
truly devilish intention, and these are brought into the j
open with impudent downrightncss and frankness. By \
categorically denying tlie importancc of personality, j
and so of the nation and its racial significance, it',
destroys the elemcntary principles of all human culture,
which dcpends on these factors. I

The Jew dividcs thc Organization of his worldj
teaching into two categories which, though apparcntlyj
separate, rcally form an inseparable whole : thc l
political and the labour movements. ^ j

The labour movement is thc more paying one. It^
offers thc workman hclp and protection in his hard ,
fight for existence, for which he has to thank the greed
or short-sightedness of rnany an employer, and also
the possibility of wresting better living conditions. ^ If
thc worker shrinks from entrusting the blind caprice
of men, often heartless and with but little sense of^
responsibility, with thc defcncc of his right to live as a i
man, at a time when thc State i.c., the organizedipS
Community—is paying practically no attention to him,
he will have to protect his interests himself. Now that
the so-called national bourgeoisie, blinded by money
interest, is setting every obstaclc in the way of this
strugglc for a living, and is not omy opposing but
universally and actively working against all attempts
to shorten the inhumanly long hours of work, put an
end to child labour, protect the women, and produce
healthy conditions in factories and dwellings—the
cleverer Jew is identifying himself with the under-dog.
He is gradually assuming leadership of the Trades
Union movement—all the easier because what matters
to him is not so much genuine removal of social evils,
as the formation of a blindly obedient fighting force in
industry for the purpose of destroying national economic
independence.

The Jew forcibly drives all competitors off the field.

xMY STRUGGLE

129

l Iclped by his innate greedy brutality, he sets the
IVades Union movement on a footing of brüte force.
Anyone with intelligence enough lo resist the Jewish
Iure is broken by intimidation, however determined
.ind intelligent he may be. These methods are vastly
sncccssful.

By means of the Trades Union, which might have
been the saving of the nation, the Jew actually destroys
ilie bases of the iiation’s economics.

The political Organization proceeds on parallel lines
with the foregoing. It works in with the Trades Union
movement since the latter prepares the masses for the
|)olitical Organization, and in fact drives thein forcibly
into it. It is, moreover, the constant money source
out of which the political Organization feeds its vast
iiiachine. It is thc organ of control for the political
work and acts as whipper-in for all great dernonstra-
lions, political in character. Finally it loses its economic
character altogether, serving the political idea with its
chief weapon, refusal to work, in the form of the general
sirike.

By creating a Press which is on the intellectual leve!
of the least educated, the political and labour organiza-
lion obtains force of compulsion, enabling it to inake
(he lowest strata of the nation ready for the most haz-
urdous enterprise.

It is the Jewish Press which, in an absolutely fanati-
cal campaign of calumriy, tears down all which may
be regarded as the prop of a nation’s independence,
civilization and its economic autonomy. It roars
(‘specially against characters whicli refuse to bow to
Jewish domination, or whose intellectual capacity
appears to the Jew in the light of a meriace to himself

The ignorance displayed by the mass of the people
as to the true nature of the Jews, and the lack of instinc-
live perception of our iipper dass, make the people
»asy dupes of this Jewish campaign of lies.

Whilst the natural timidity of the upper dass makes

I

130

MY STRUGGLE

it turn away from a man who is being thus attacked by j
the Jews with lies and calumny, the stupidity or simple- j|
mindedness of the masses causes them to believe all i
they hear. The State authorities either cower inj
silence, or—what is more to the point—in order to put ]
an end to the Jews’ Press campaign, they persecute '
those who are being unjustly attacked, and this, in the ;
eyes of such Jacks in office, Stands for vindication of
State authority and maintenance of peace and order.

Thus, if we review all the causes of the German
collapse, the final and decisive one is seen to be the
failure to realize the racial problem and, more especially,
the Jewish menace.

The defeats on the field of battle of August, 1918,
might have been borne with the utmost ease. Il
was not they which overthrew us ; what overthrew us
was the force which prepared for those defeats by.
robbing the nation of all political and moral instinct j
and strength by schemes which had been under wayj
for many decades ; and only these instincts can fitj
nations for existence and justify them in existing. Byj
ignoring the question of maintaining the racial basisj
of our nationality, the old Empire disregarded the onel
and only law wWeh makes life possible on this earth.J

The loss of racial purity ruins the fortunes of a race]
for ever ; it continues to sink lower and lower in man-j
kind, and its consequences can never be expelled again ;
from body and mind. i

Thus, all attempts at reform, and all social work in
aid, all political efforts, every increase of econoimc
prosperity, and every apparent addition to scientific
knowledge went for nothing. The nation and the
organism which made life possible for it on this earth
—i.e., the State—did not grow sounder, but waned
visibly more and more. The brilliance of the old
Empire failed to conceal the inner weakness, and all

MY STRUGGLE

I3J

.illempts to add strength to the Reich came to nothing
<-:ich time, because they persisted in ignoring the most
essential questions of all.

That is why, in August, 1914, a nation did not rush
liill of determination into the battle ; it was merely the
last flicker of a national instinct of self-preservation face
Io face with the advancing forces of Marxism and
pacifism, crippling the body of our nation. But since
in those fateful days no one realized the domestic foe,
l esistance was all in vain, and Providence chose not to
reward the victorious sword but followed the law of
eternal retribution.

Il

GHAPTER XII j

THE FIRST PERIOD IN THE DEVELOPMENT OF THE 1

NATIONAL SOCIALIST GERMAN WORKERS’ PARTY 1

I F 1 offer an account at the dose of this volume of l
the first period in the development of our Move- i
ment, and mention shortly a number of matters con- ,j
nected with it, my intention is not to give a dissertation j
on the theoretic aims of the Movement. The latter has ■
tasks and aims so tremendous that a whole volume j
must be devoted to dealing with them. Therefore i j
shall go thoroughly into the principles as regards pro- :
gramme of the Movement, and attempt to draw a ]
picture of what we understand by the word “State”, j
By “we” I mean all the hundreds of thousands who in ;
the main long for the same thing but have not the j
words to express what is fluttering in their minds.
For it is a remarkable fact pf all great reforms, that they :
often have only one man as Champion at the Start, but '
millions carry on the work. Their aim is frequently
one which has been desired in secret by hundreds of
thousands for centuries, until one arises to proclaim
the universal desire, and as its standard-bearer drives'
the old longing on to victory in a new idea.

The deep discontent feit by millions proves that in
their hearts they cherish a longing for a thorough change
in conditions as they are to-day. The many who are
sick of elections are a witness to this, also the numbers
who incline to the fanatical extreme of the Left. It is
to those that the young Movement should first turn.

The question of recovering our nation’s political
power is first and foremost one of restoring our national

132

MY STRUGGLE

133

desire for self-preservation, since experience shows that
die building up of foreign policy, and also assessment
of the importance of any State, are based less on exist-
ing armaments than on the known or imagined powers
of resistance of a nation. For an alliance is concluded
not with weapons but with men. Thus, the British
nation will continue to be considered as the most
valuablc ally in the world, as long as the world looks
Io the leadership and spirit of its people for the ruth-
lessness and tenacity which is determined to fight out a
siruggle, once begun, by every means and without
regard for time and sacrifice right on to the victorious
(md ; which proves that there is no need for the military
armaments cxisting always in any special ratio to
ihose of other States.

A young Movement, aiming amongst other things
at re-establishing a German State with self-government,
will have to concentrate its forces on gaining the sup-
port of the mass of the people.

Our so-called “National Bourgeoisie” is so hopeless,
so greatly wanting in national sentiment, that there is
certain to be serious Opposition from that quarter
against a strong national policy at home and abroad.
By reason of this same stupidity, however, the German
bourgeoisie maintained an attitudc of passive resistance
cvcn against Bismarck in the hour of the coming libera-
tion, and now also, owing to their proverbial timidity,
there is no reason to fear any active Opposition.

But with the mass of our compatriots with inter¬
national sympathies it is otherwise. Not only is more
primitive nature more inclined to ideas of violence, but
their Jewish leaders are more brutal and ruthless.

Added to this is the fact that the leaders of the
Parties of national betrayal must and will necessarily
oppose any Movement whatever from motives of self-
preservation. It is historically inconceivable that the
German nation may return to its former position with¬
out first reckoning with those who gave the first

^34

MY STRUGGLE

impulse to the frightful disaster wliich visited our
State. For before the jiidgment seat of the future,
November, 1918, will be tried not for high treason but
for betrayal of the nation.

Thus, any idea of restoring German independence
is inseparably bound up with restoration of a deter-
mined spirit in our people.

It was clear to us even in 1919 that the chief aim of
the new Movement must be to awaken a sentiment of
nationality in the masses. From the tactical stand-
point a number of requirements arise out of this.

1. No social sacrifice is too great in order to win
the masses over to the national Movement. But a
Movement, whose aim is to recover the German worker
for the German nation, must realize that economic
sacrifices are not an essential factor in it, so long as the
maintenance and independence of the nation’s economic
life is not menaced by them.

2. Nationalizing of the masses can never be
effected by half-measures or by mild expression of an
“objective standpoint”, but by determined and fanati-
cal concentration on the object aimed at. The mass
of the people do not consist of professors or diplomats.
A man who desires to win their adherence must know
the key which will unlock the door to their hearts.
This is not objectivity, i.e., weakness, but determination
and strength.

3. There can only be success in winning the soul
of the people if, whilst we are conducting the political
struggle for our own aim, we also destroy those who
oppose it.

The masses are but a part of nature, and it is not in
them to understand mutual hand-shakings between
men whose desires are nominally in direct Opposition
to each other. What they wish to see is victory for
the stronger and destruction of the weaker,

4. Incorporation of a section of the nation which

MY STRUGGLE

135

Iias become a dass, as part of the national whole, or
simply of the State, is to be effected not by debasing
ilie higher classes but by raising the lower ones. But
die dass entrusted with this process can never be the
higher one, but the one which is fighting for the rights
of equality. The bourgeoisie of to-day was not incor¬
porated in the State by any help from the nobility, but
by its own activity and under its own leadership.

The most serious obstacle in the way of approach-
ing the worker of to-day is not his jealousy of his
Interests as a dass, but the attitude of his international
Icaders, which is hostile to the nation and the Father-
land. Those same Trades Unions, if led in a fanati-
('ally national spirit with regard to politics and nation¬
ality, would convert millions of workers into very valu-
able members of the nation, and this would be entirely
unconnected with any struggles occurring here and
t here in the domain of pure economics.

A Movement which would honestly restore the
Crerman worker to his own people and rescue him from
the madness of internationalism, must be in definite
Opposition tc the attitude, ruling among great employ-
crs, which interprets common nationality in the sense
of helpless economic subjection of the employee to the
employer.

The worker sins against the common nationality
when, without regarding the common welfare and
preservation of the nation’s economy, he makes extor-
tionate demands from confidence in his strength, just
as gravely as the employer does when he misuses the
working strength of the nation by inhuman methods
of exploitation and makes extortionate profits out of
the sweat of millions.

Thus, the reservoir from which the young Movc-
inent should draw its adherents will be, in the first
place, the body of workers. Its task will be to deliver
them from the folly of internationalism, free them from
their social poverty, raise them out of their cultural

136

MY STRUGGLE

depression, and convert them into a factor in the com- ]
munity, which shall be solid, valuable and filled with '
national feelings and aspirations. j

Our aim, in fact, is not to produce an iipheaval in 1
the national camp, but to win the anti-national camp 1
over to our cause. This principle is an absolutely 3
essential one for the tactical direction of the whole
Movement. I

This consistent, and therefore clear, attitude must l
be expressed in the propaganda of the Movement, and, ■
moreover, it will be necessary for Propagandist reasons. ’
Both in subject and form, propaganda should be
framed so as to reach the mass of the people ; the only
means of measuring its correctness is success in practice.
In a large populär assemblage the most effective
Speaker is not he who most resembles the educated i
section of his audience, but he who captures the hearts i
of the crowd. I

The objective of a Movement of political reform is j
never attained by laboured explanation or by bringing J
influence to bear on the powers that be, but only by 1
seizing political power. j

But a coup d'etat cannot be regarded as successful if ^
revolutionaries take possession of the administration, J
but only if the success of the objects and intentions j
underlying such revolutionary action bring more good !
to the nation than they enjoyed under the preceding
regime ; and this cannot well be said of the “German
Revolution”, as the act of brigandage of the autumn of ,
1918 is called.

But if seizure of political power is the preliminary
to practical carrying out of reforms, then a Movement
with reforming intentions must, from the first day of
its existence, feel itself to be a Movement of the people,
and not a literary tea-club or a party of smug little
players.

MY STRÜGGLE

137

The young Movement is in its essence and Organiza¬
tion anti-parliamentarian, i.e., it rejects, in principle
and in its composition, any theory of the majority vote,
implying that the leader is degraded to being merely
there to carry out the Orders and opinions of others.
In small things and great, the Movement Stands for the
principle of unquestioned authority of the leader, com-
i)ined with füllest responsibility.

It is one of the main tasks of the Movement to make
t his principle the deciding one not only within its own
ranks but also throughout the State.

Finally, the Movement does not consider it its duty
to maintain or restore any particular form of State in
Opposition to any other one, but rather to create those
fundamental principles without which neither Republic
uor Monarchy can exist in permanency. Its mission is
not to found a Monarchy or establish a Republic, but
to create a Germanic State.

The question of the internal Organization of the
Movement is not one of principle but of expediency.
The best Organization is one which inserts least, and
not most, machinery of State between the leaders and
the individuals depending from them. For the task of
Organization is to comrnunicate a definite idea—which
always originates in the brain of one single man—to
the general public, and also to see to its conversion
from theory into reality.

When the number of adherents increases, small
affiliated groups are to be formed, which represent
local nucleus cells in the future political Organization.

The internal Organization of the Movement should
he on the following lines :

Concentration at first of the whole work in one spot
—Munich. A staff of adherents of undoubted relia-
bility to be trained and a school formed for future pro¬
paganda of the idea. The necessary authority to be

138

MY STRUGGLE

gained for later on by means of the greatest and most
visible success possible at that one centre.

Local groups are not to be formed until the author-
ity of the central leadership in Munich has received
absolute recognition.

For leadership not only will-power is required, but
also the capability from which energy receives greater
weight than from pure genius by itself. A combina-
tion of the three qualities is best of all.

The future of a Movement is dependent on the
fanaticism, the intolerance even, with which its adher-
ents defend it as the one right course and carry it
through in Opposition to schemes of similar character.

It is a very great error to think that a Movement
becomes stronger by linking itself with other ones,
though they may have similar aims. I admit that any
increase of size means an increase of scope, and—in the
eyes of superficial observers—of power as well ; in
reality, however, a Movement merely admits the seed
of weakness within itself which makes itself feit later on.

The greatness of any active Organization, which is
the embodiment of an idea, lies in the spirit of religious
fanaticism and intolerance in which it attacks all
others, being fanatically convinced that it alone is
right. If an idea is right in itself and, being armed
with such weapons, wages warfare on this earth, it is
invincible, and persecution only increases its internal
strength.

The greatness of Christendom lay not in any
attempts to reconcile itself with the philosophical
opinions of the ancients, which had some similarity
with its own, but in unrelenting and fanatical pro-
clamation and defence of its own doctrines.

The members of the Movement must not be
frightened by the hatred of the enemy of our nation
and by his theories of government or by his words :

MY STRUGGLE

139

they must look for all this. Lies and calumny are
essentially bound up in that hatred.

Any man who is not attacked, slandered and
calumniated in the Jewish Press is no true German, no
true National Socialist. The best Standard for the
value of his sentiments, the reality of his conviction and
the strength of his will-power is the ferocity shown
towards him by the enemies of our nation,

The Movement should use every means to instil
respect for personality ; it should bear in mind that
all human value lies in personality, that every idea,
every accomplishment is the result of one man’s
Creative work, and that admiration for greatness is not
merely a thank-ofTering paid to it, but also a bond
uniting those who are grateful for it. There is no
Substitute for personality.

In the earliest days of our Movement we suffered
great disabilities owing to the fact that our names
carried no importance and were unknown ; this by
itself made any chance of success most questionable.
The public, of course, knew nothing whatever about
US. In Munich no one even knew of the Party by
narne, barring the small number of adherents and the
few who knew them. It was therefore essential to
extend the little circle, get fresh adherents, and at all
costs get the name of the Movement known.

With this in view we tried each month, and later
on each fortnight, to hold a meeting. The invitations
were partly typed and partly written by hand on
tickets. I remember myself delivering as many as
eighty of those tickets on one occasion, and in the
evening we waited for the crowds who ought to be
Corning. After putting off the meeting for an hour,
the Chairman was obliged to Start it with the original
seven members, and no one eise !

We poor devils subscribed little sums and finally

MY STRUGGLE

140

managed to advertise a meeting in the Münchener
Beobachter^ which was then independent. This time the^
success was amazing.

We had taken a room for the meeting. At 7
o’clock III persons were present and the meeting
began. A Munich professor was to make the chief
Speech, and I was to speak second. I spoke for
minutes, and I now proved what I had instinctively
feit but did not know for certain in any way : I could
speak. After 30 minutes the audience in the little hall
were electrified, and the enthusiasm was such that my
appeal caused those present to be ready to subscribel
300 marks for expenses. This relieved us of a great T
anxietv.

The then Chairman of the Party, Herr Harrer, was
by profession and training a Journalist. But as a]
Party leader he had one great disability. He was not
an orator for the masses. Exact and conscientious
though his work was, for want of this talent, perhaps,
he lacked the extra driving power. Herr Drexler,
then local Chairman of the Movement in Munich, was
simply a workman and of not much account as a
Speaker ; moreover, he was not a soldier. He had
never served in the War, so that, besides being naturally
weak and undecided, he had never had the sole train¬
ing which can make men out of soft, undecided char-
acters. Thus, neither of thern was hewn out of timber
of the kind to assimilate fanatical faith in victory for

0

any Movement.

I myself was then still a soldier.

Most of all must the Marxist betrayers of the
nation have hated a Movement the outspoken aim of j
which was to win over the masses, which up tili then
had been absolutely at the beck and call of the inter¬
national Marxist Jewish Stock Exchange Parties. The
title “German Workers’Party” was an Irritation by itself.

MY STRUGGLE

141

Throughout the winter of 1919-20 our one struggle
was to strengthen faith in the conquering power of the
young Movement and swell it into the fanaticism
which has power to remove mountains.

A meeting of the “Deutches Reich” in the Dachauer
Strasse again proved that I was right. The attendance
iimounted to over 200, and our success both as regards
ihe public and financially was brilliant. A month later
over 400 came to our meetings.

It was not for no reason that the young Movement
lixed on a definite programme and did not employ
ihe Word “populär” {völkisch). Owing to its lack of
IImitation as a conception, that expression offers no
possible basis for any Movement, nor does it set a
Standard for those who are to belong to it. Since the
conception is hard to define in practice and is open to
broad variations of interpretation, its appeal is too
wide. Introduction into the political struggle of a
conception, so undefined and with so many interpreta-
lions, would tend towards destroying that Community
of aim in the struggle in Order to attain which it cannot
l)e left to the individual to settle his desires and con-
victions for himself

I cannot enough warn the young Movement against
l)cing drawn into the net of so-called “silent workers”.
'fhey are not only cowards, but are always incapables
and idlers. A man wh'o knows of a matter, recognizes
some possible danger, and sees a remedy for it before
liis eyes, has the Obligation laid upon him not to work
“silently”, but to stand up publicly against the evil
and work for its eure. If he falls in this he is a miser¬
able weakling, forgetful of duty, who falls either from
cowardice or from laziness and incapacity. But that
is how most of these “silent workers” usually rcact, as
lliough they knew God knows what. They are quite
incapable, yet they try to trick the whole world with

f

142

MY STRUGGLE

their pretentions ; they are lazy, yet give an Impression j
of vast and busy activity with their pretence of ‘‘silent”
work. In short, they are swindlers, political profiteers,
who hate the honest work done by others. Every \
single agitator with courage to stand up to his opponents
in the tavern and defend his views boldly and frankly
effects more than a thousand of such sneaking, insidious
hypocrites.

Early in 1920 I urged that the first great mass meet-
ing should be held. Herr Harrer, who was then
Chairman of the Party, feit unable to agree with my ]
views as to the moment chosen and retired in all honour
from being leader of the Movement. Herr Anton
Drexler was his successor. I myself undertook to
organize the propaganda of the Movement and now
proceeded to carry it on without Stint.

February 24th, 1920, was the date fixed upon for
the first great mass meeting of the Movement, which
was still unknown. I made the arrangements in
person.

The colour we chose was red, as providing the best i
draw and being the one most likely to excite and
irritate our opponents, and therefore to impress us |
most firmly on their minds and memories.

The meeting started ; at 7.15 I walked through the
hall at Hofbrähausfestsaal in the Platzl in Munich, and 'j
my heart nearly burst with joy. That great hall—forit j
seemed great to me then—was dose packed and over- j
flowing with an audience of nearly 2,000.

When the first Speaker had finished it was my turn
to speak. In a few minutes interruptions hailed on j
me and there were violent scenes in the body of the
hall ; a handful of faithful war-comrades and a few
other adherents engaged the disturbers and managed
to restore quiet after a bit. I was able to proceed.
Half an hour later the applause began to drown the
interruptions and hooting, and finally, when I had \

MY STRUGGLE

143

cxplained the 25 points, I had before me a hall full of
people United in a new conviction, a new faith, a new
will. A fire had been kindled, from the glow of which
the sword was to emerge, destined to restore freedora
to the Germanic Siegfiied and life to the German
nation.

In the later chapters I shall describe in detail the
principles which guided us in settling our programme.
The so-called intellectual classes have laughed at us
and joked about us in their attempt to find criticism.
But the effectiveness of our programme has furnished
the best proof that our views at that time were the
correct ones.

GHAPTER I

WORLD THEORY AND PARTY

I T was clear that the new Movementcould not hope
to attain the importance and strength required for
die great struggle, unless it succeeded from the very
Start in planting in the hearts of its adherents the noble
ronviction that it was not supplying political life with
a new election cry, but that it presented a new view of
ilie World as a principle.

It should be reflected what wretched motives are
iiormally at the bottom of “Party programmes”, when
diese are polished up from time to time and remodelled.
()ne motive there is which constantly drives them
either to introduce new ones or to alter existing ones
—the anxiety about the result of the next Elections.

Once the Elections are over the Member—who is
clected for five years—goes each morning to the House,
not perhap right inside, but at any rate as far as the
liall in which the atiendance lists are placed.

His fatiguing Service in the people’s cause leads
liim to sign his name, and in return for this exhausting
cffort, daily repeated, he accepts a small honorarium
as his well-earned reward.

There is hardly anything so depressing as to watch
all that goes on in Parliament in its sober reality and
10 have to look on at this constantly repeated betrayal.

Such intellectual soil is not likely to produce
strength in the camp of the bourgeoisie to fight the
organized forces of Marxism. Indeed, gentlemen in
Parliament are not giving serious thought to it.

X47

MY STRUGGLE

148

Seeing that for all Parties of so-called bourgeois]
tendency politics actually consist wholly in the tusslei
for each man’s seat in Parliament, in which convictions |
and principles are thrown overboard like sand-ballast I
at the requirement of the moment, their programmes j
are naturally determined and their strength estimated j
—the other way round, of course—in accordance with 1
the same. They lack that great magnetic attraction j
to which the masses only respond under the urgent j
impression of great and lofty ideas, as unquestioning j
faith combined with fanatical fighting courage. Butj
at a time when one side, fully armed with weapons a|
thousand times criminal, attacks an existing order ofj
things, the other side can only offer resistance if the]
latter assumes a new form of faith—in our casc political j
—and rejects a weak and timid defensive attitude inj
favour of bold and ruthless attack.

The conception ‘‘populär” (völkisch) appears tobej
as indefinite and devoid of limitation in practice, and ]
as capable of varying interpretation as the word *
“Religious”. Both include certain basic beliefs. Andi
yet, although of supreme importance, they are so vague]
in form that they do not rise above the value of anj
opinion which must more or less be admitted, until]
they become fixed as the basic elements within the
frame of a political party. For mere sentiment, or the
desire of mankind, is as incapable of Converting world-^
ideals and the demands which arise out of them into '
realities, as it is of winning freedom merely by a uni¬
versal longing for it. No, it is not until the ideal urge
towards independence adopts a fighting Organization
in the form of military force that the desires of a nation
can be converted into noble realization.

Any world-ideal, be it a thousand times right and
liighly profitable to mankind, will still be without force
for the lifc of a nation, until its principles are made the
basis of a fighting Movement capable of maintaining

MY STRUGGLE

149

ifsclf as a Party until action is crowned by triumph,
iind until its Party dogmas become a new basic law of
flie State for the entire community.

The ordinary attitude towards politics current with
ns to-day rests in general on the notion that Creative
and civilizing strength ought to be an attribute of the
State, that the latter has no part in matters affecting
race but is a product of economic necessity or, at the
best, a natural outcome of political forces. Carried to
its logical conclusion, this basic attitude leads not merely
(o misrepresentation of racial causes, but also to failure
Io assign to personality its proper value. For denial
I hat therc is a difference between races as regards their
capacity for building up culture is bound to extend
that great error to judgments formed concerning the
personality of the individual. An assumption that all
races are equal as regards character will be followed by
a similar way of considering nations, and so on to
individuals. Thus, international Marxism itself is
merely a general view of the world—which has really
l)cen held for a very long time—carried forward by the
Jew, Karl Marx, in the form of a definite confession of
political faith. Lacking the foundation of somc such
poisoning process already in general Operation, the
(ixtraordinary political success of those doctrines would
have been impossible. Karl Marx was in reality
merely the one among millions who recognized with the
sure eyc of a prophet in the slough of a corrupting
world the essential poison, and extracted it as if by
magic arts, in a concentrated solution in order to bring
(|uicker destruction to the independent existence of free
iiations on this earth. And all in order to serve his
owh race.

In this way the Marxist doctrine is the intellectual
(‘pitome of the world views generally current to-
day.

In this part of the world human culture and

150

MY STRUGGLE

civilization are inextricably bound up with the presence 1
ofthe Aryan element. If it died outor went under, the |
black veil of a ciiltureless period would once again |
descend upon the globe. ]

To aiiyone who views the world through National- 1
ists’ eyes, any breach in the existence of human civiliza- |
tion, effected by the destruction of the race which main- |
tains it, would appear in the light of a most accursed 1
of crimes. Whoever dares lay his hand on the most j
noble image of God is sinning against the kindly
Creator of that marvel and is lending a hand in his i
expulsion from Paradise. j

We are all aware that in the far futurc mankind \
will have to deal with problems to cope with which
some most noble race will have to be summoned as j
leader of the world, supported by the forces of the \
whole of the globe. j

Organization of a world policy can at all timesn
only be effected by its being enunciated definitely and i
distinctly ; the principles of a political Party which is j
in process of formation are the same for it as dogma is ]
for a religion. j

Therefore the Nationalist policy must have an j
instrument which will offer a possibility of our defend-
ing it by force—-just as now the Marxist Party organiza- j
tion is opening the way for Internationalism. This is]
the aim which the National Socialist German Workers’ j
Party is pursuing. I

I then perceived that it was my special task to]
extract the central ideas from the mass of unshaped
material of a universal world-theory and remould theni
in a more or less dogmatic form which, being clearly
cut and dried, should be of a kind to unite solidly all
those who subscribed to it. In other words : the
National Socialist German Workers’ Party undertakes
to adapt the essential principles of a universal national

MY STRUGGLE 151

world-theory, and, having due regard to practica!
|)ossibilities, the times, and the supply of human
material and its weaknesses, to formulate from them a
political creed which shall in time to come be the pre¬
ll minary condition for the final triumph of that world-
theory when once such methods have made possible a
rigid Organization of great masses of people.

CHAPTER II

THE STATE I

E ven in 1920-21 an accusation was brought againsl j
our young Movement by the bourgeois worlcl 1
now out of date—that our attitude towards the State j
was one of rejection ; from this the Party politicians ol 1
every colour argued that it was right to fight in order j
to crush the young, inconvenient Champion of a new
world-theory by every possible means. They had for- j
gotten purposely that the bourgeois world itself repre-l
sents that the State is no longer a homogeneous body,|
that there is and can be no consistent definition of thej
Word. And yet in our State High Schools there siu
instructors, in the shape of lecturers on State Law ,1
who must find an explanation for the more or less happy
existence of the State which pays them. The worse the
Constitution ofa State, the sillier, more high-flowu and less
comprehensible are the definitions for its object in existing. ^
How, for instance, could an Imperial-Royal professor]
once write about the meaning and object of the State, -
in a country whose State existence is the worst mon-
strosity of the twentieth Century ? A difficult task ^
indeed !

It is possible to distinguish three groups among
them ;

First, the group of those who see the State as a
more or less voluntary collection of people under a
government administration. For them the mere exisl-
ence of the State constitutes its claim to sanctifiecl
inviolability. In support of this mad conception ol
the human brain, they observe dog-like adoration for
“State authority”, so-called. Thus, by a turn of the

152

MY STRUGGLE

153

liand, they convert a means into the final end. The
State is not there to serve men, but men are there for
ihe purpose of worshipping a State authority which
«lothes, as it were, a kind of ultimate spirit of
olficialdom.

The second group does not believe that State
.uithority is the one and only object of the State, but
(liat furtherance of its subjects’ welfare has something
(o say in it. Thoughts of “freedom”, wrongly under-
siood for the most part, intrude themselves into this
group’s conception of the State. The fact, by itself,
(hat the form of government exists is not sufficient
leason to consider it sacrosanct, but it must stand
rxamination as regards suitability. We meet most of
I he supporters of this view amongst our normal German
l)ourgeoisic, and especially amongst Liberal Democrats.

The third group is the weakest numerically. It
sees the State as a vehicle for realizing very vaguely
imagined tendcncies towards a policy of might by a
unified nation all speaking the same language.

It was truly distressful to see how, during the last
hundred years, people holding these opinions—in all
good faith, most of them—played with the word “Ger-
manize”. I remember how in rny own youth this
lerm Icd to amazingly false conceptions. In Pan-
German circles one heard it suggested that with help
from the Government, Germanization of the Austrian
Slav Population might be successfully carried out.

It is hardly imaginable that any one should think
I liat a German could be made out of, say, a negro or a
Chinaman, because he has learned German and is
ready to talk it for the rest of his life, and to vote for
some German political party.

The process would mean a beginning of bastardiza-
lion of our race, and in our case not Germanization
l)ut destruction of the German element.

Since nationality, or rather race, is not a matter of

154

MY STRUGGLE

language but of blood, it would only be possible to
talk about Germanization if the process could alter the
nature of the blood of the person subjected to it. That,
however, is impossible. It would have to take place,
then, by mixing the blood, and that would mean lower¬
ing the level of the superior race.

History shows that it was Germanization of the
land^ which our forefathers won with the sword, which
brought profit, for it was colonized with German agri-
culturists. Whenever foreign blood has been intro-
duced into the body of our nation, its unhappy effect
has been to break up our national character.

The main principle which we must observe is that
the State is not an end but a means. It is the founda-
tion on which higher human culture is to rest, but it
does not originate it. It is rather the presence of a
race endowed with capabilities for civilization which is
able to do this. There might be hundreds of model
States in the world, and yet, if the Aryan conserver of
culture died out, there would be in existence no culture
on an intellectual level with that of the highest nations
of to-day. We may go still farther and say that the
fact that men form States would in no way cut out the
possibility of the human race disappearing, supposing
superior intellectual capacity and adaptibility became
lost owing to lack of a race to conserve them.

The State as such does not create a definite cul-
tural Standard ; it can merely include the race which
decides it.

Hence the nccessary condition for producing a
higher humanity is not the State, but the race which
possesses the essential qualities for it.

Nations, or better still, races, possessing cultural
and Creative talent have these useful qualities latent in
them, even though outside circumstances, being unfav-
ourable at a given moment, may prohibit development

MY STRUGGLE

155

of them. Thus, it is outrageous to represent the Ger-
iiianic peoples of the pre-Christian cra as cultureless
barbarians. That they never werc. The harsh climate
of their northern home forced them to exist under con-
(litions which prevented their Creative qualities from
(leveloping. If there had been no classic antique
world, and if they had come to the more favourable
Southern lands and had obtained the earliest technical
aids to progress, i.e., by employing races inferior to
themselves, the capacity for creating culture which
was dormant in them would have produced an efflor-
escence just as splendid as did in fact happen in the
case of the Hellenes.

The chief aim to be pursued by a national State is
Conservation of the ancient racial elements which, by
disseminated culture, create the beauty and dignity of
a higher humanity. We, as Aryans living under a
State, can only picture to ourselves the living organism
of a nationality which will not only ensure that that
nationality shall be maintained, but also by continuing
to nurture its intellectual and imaginative capabilities,
leads it on to the highest freedom.

And yet, to-day, the pressure brought to bear on us
as a State is a product of intense human error, with a
likelihood of unspeakable misery to follow.

We National Socialists are aware that the present-
day world regards us as revolutionaries on account of
our ideas, and is branding us as such. But our thoughts
and actions must not be influenced by our own epoch s
approval or condemnation, but by firm adliesion to
the truths which we recognize. We may then be sure
that the clearer vision of posterity will not only compre-
hend our action of to-day, but will admit that it was
right, and pay honour to it.

In speaking of a higher mission of the State we
should not forget that the higher mission resides

156

MY STRUGGLE

essen tially in the nation, and that the State’s duty is merely
to make use of its organizing strength for the purpose
of promoting the nation’s free development.

But if we ask how the State which we Germans
require should be constituted, we must first be clear as to
what kind of men it should aim at producing and what
object it sets out to servc.

Unfortunately, the central kernel of our German
nation is no longer racially homogeneous. The pro-
cess of welding the various original components together
has not yet gone so far that we can assert that a new
race has emerged from it. On the contrary, the
poisoning through the blood from which our national
body has suffered ever since the Thirty Years’ War,
has not only upset our blood, but our soul as well.
The Fatherland’s open frontiers, the neighbourhood of
foreign non-German bodies dose to our frontier lands,
and above all, the steady flow of foreign blood into the
interior of the Reich, leave no time for absolute fusion,
since the invasion continues without intermission.

Germans are without the herd-instinct which
appears when all are of one blood and protects nations
against ruin especially at moments when danger
threatens. The fact of this want has done us untold
harm. It provided a number of small German poten-
tates with Capital, but it robbed the German nation of
its rights of mastery.

To take the place of a dead machine, which only
Claims to exist for sake of itself, a living organism must
be formed with the exclusive aim of serving a high
conception.

In its capacity as a State, the German Reich must
gather all Germans to itself; it must not only select
out of the German nation only the best of the
original racial elements and conserve them, but
must slowly and surely raise them to a position of
dominance.

MY STRUGGLE

157

It is quite natural that the ofRcials who control our
State to-day are much happier in working simply to
keep things going as they are than in fighting for some-
ihing which is to come. They will feel that it is far
easier to look on the State as a machine which is there
simply for the purpose of keeping them alive—so that
their lives, as they are fond of saying, ‘‘belong to the
Statd’.

When, therefore, we are fighting for our new ideas
—which are in full harmony with the original meaning
of things—we shall draw very few comrades for the
fight from a collection of men, who are obsolete in
body and, alas ! only too often so in mind as well.
Only the exceptions, old men young in heart and fresh
in mind will come with us, but never those who think
that the final significance of their task in life is to main-
tain a condition of things unaltered.

We must bear in mind that if a certain sum of high
energy and efficiency has been extracted from a nation
and appears to be united in one single aim and has
been finally segregated out of the inertia of the masses,
this small percentage, ipso facto^ rises to become master
of the rest. The world’s history is made by minorities,
given that they have incorporated in them the greater
part of the nation’s will-power and determination.

Therefore, that which appears to many to be a
disadvantage is in reality the necessary condition of our
victory. It is in the greatness and difficulty of our
task that the probability lies that only the best fighters
will join US in the fight. The pledge of success lies in
choice of the very best.

Every Crossing of races leads sooner or later to the
decay of the hybrid product, so long as the higher
portion of the cross survives united in racial purity. It
is only when the last vestige of the higher racial unit
becomes bastardized that the hybrid product ceases to
be in danger of extinction. But a foundation must be

MY STRUGGLE

158

iaid of a natural, if slow, process of regeneration, which
shall gradually drive out the racial poison, that is, given
that a foundation stock of racial purity still exists, and
the process of bastardization is arrested.

It is the first duty of a national State to raise
marriage from being a perpetual disgrace to the race,
and to consecrate it as an institution, which is called
to reproduce the Lord’s image, and not monstrous
beings, half man, half monkey.

Protests against this on so-called humanitarian
grounds ill befit an epoch which allows any corrupt
degenerate to reproduce himself and so lay a bürden
of unspeakable sufl'ering both on his contemporaries
and on his offspring, whilst, on the other hand, means
for preventing a birth are ofFered for sale in every
chemist’s shop, and even by Street hawkers, even when
the parents are perfectly healthy. In this orderly
latter-day State—as those who defend it assert—in this
brave world of nationalist bourgeois, prevention of
fecundity in sufferers from syphilis, tuberculosis, and
hereditary diseases, cripples and crHins, counts as a
crime, whereas what is in practice a cessation of fecun¬
dity in millions of our best people is not regarded as
an evil or an ofFence against the morals of this sancti-
monious society ; it is instead a sop to its short-sighted
slackness of thought. For if it were otherwise, they
would have to rack their brains and consider how to
make provision for nourishing and conserving the
healthy representatives of our nation, who should
perform a similar Service for the benefit of generations
to come.

How greatly lacking in ideals and honour is this
whole System ! No one is making an efFort to cultivate
what is best for the sake of posterity, but things are let
go on just as they are going now.

It is the duty of the National State to recover all

MY STRUGGLE

159

that is being let drop now on all sides. It must put
the race in the central position in the general life of
the nation and see to its being kept pure. It must
declare childhood to be the most precious possession of
the nation. It must see to it that only the healthy
heget children—that it is nothing but disgraceful for
[tersons diseased or with personal disabilities to send
children into the world, but, on the other hand, an
honourable action to refrain from doing so. On the
other hand, it must be considered a reproach to deprive
the nation of healthy children. The State must place
the most modern medical aids at the Service of these
accepted facts. It must declare unfit to heget children
anyone who is clearly diseased or has hereditary dis¬
abilities, and back it up with action. It must also see
that the fruitfulness of a healthy woman is not blocked
by the damnable finance of a regime which makes the
blessing of children into a curse for the parents.

By educating the individual the State must teach
that it is not shameful, but a regrettable misfortune, to
be ailing and weakly, but that it is criminal, and there-
fore shameful, to bring dishonour on the misfortune
through selfishness if a man burdens an innocent being
with his own misfortune ; whereas it is proof of high
nobility of feeling and humanity worthy of admiration
if a sickly but innocent man renounces having a child
of his own and transfers his love and tenderness to.some
poor Strange infant, whose healthy nature gives promise
of becoming a strong member of a strong community.
By this Work of education the State should crown its
practical activities in their intellectual aspect. Its
action should go on, unafFected by consideration
whether the work is understood or misunderstood,
populär or unpopulär.

It must be made possible for the national con-
sciousness in the matrimonial State to bring into being
a more glorious epoch, in which men no longer give all
their attention to improving the breeds of horses, dogs

i6u MY STRUGGLE 1

and cats, but rather to raising the condition of man,!
and in which one man silently practices renunciation I
vvith knowledge, whilst another rejoices in sacrificingl

and giving. \

This ought not to be impossible in a world where ]
hundreds of thousands of men voluntarily give them* ]
selves up to celibacy, bound by nothing but thc com- j
mands of a Ghurch. ]

If a generation suffers under failings which it knows
of, and indeed admits, and if it contcnts itself, as is !
the case to-day with our bourgeois world, with lightly j
declaring that nothing can be done about it, such a j
socicty is doomed to destruction. i

No, we must all of us refuse to give in to this decep-ij
tion. Our present bourgeoisie is now too bad and]
unfit to deal with any great task for humanity. It isj
too bad—not, in my opinion, from deliberate depravity, ]
but from colossal indolence and all that springs from]
it. It is long since the political clubs which go about j
under the generic name of Bourgeois Parties have been j
anything eise than societies representing certain distinclj
classes and professions, and they have nothing finer to j
do than to defcnd selfish interests as best they can. It j
is obvious that a guild of bourgeois politicians, such as j
ours, is fit for anything rather than fighting ; especiallyl
when the other side consists not of cautious shopkeepers, ]
but proletarian masses, violently aroused and absolutely j
determined.

It is the duty of the State to turn the young scions
of the race into worthy instruments for increasing the I
race later on.

With this in view, the national State must direct
its education work, in the first place, not so much
towards pumping in mere knowledge as towards culti- j
vating thoroughly healthy bodies. After that comes i
development of mental capability. Here again forma- 1

m

MY STRUGGLE

i6i

lion of character comes first, especially encouragernent
< >1* will-powxr and determination, combined with teach-
iiig the joy of assuming responsibility, and not tili last
«omes schooling in pure knowledge.

The national State must act on the presumption
iliat a man of moderate education, but sound in body,
lirm in character and filled with joyous self-confidence
.uid power of will, is of more value to the community
ilian a highly educated weakling.

Cultivation of the body is, thcrefore, not an affair
lor the individual in the national State, nor even a
matter which affects parents alone, being of second or
f’ven third-rate interest to the community, but it is a
requisite for maintenance of the race, which the State
is to defend and protect. The State must so distribute
its work of education that the young bodies are handled
in earliest childhood and receive the hardening neces-
sary for later life. It must take particular care that a
^(‘lieration of stay-at-homes is not produced.

Schools in a national State should set aside more time
lor bodily exercise. There should be no day on which
a boy should not have at least one hour’s corporal
ti'aining, both in the morning and afternoon, in games
and gymnastics ; one sport in particular should not be
inissed out, which many ‘^nationalists” look on as rough
and unworthy—boxing. It is unbelievable what false
ideas are common about it amongst the ‘‘educated”.
’l’hey think it natural and honourablc for a young man

10 learn how to fight, and for him to fight duels, but

1 1 is rough if he boxes ! Why ? There is no sport which
rricourages the spirit of attack as this one does ; it
(Icmands lightning decision and hardens and supples
ihe body. It is not rougher for two youths to settle a
»lispute with their fists than with a polished Strip of
Steel.

If the whole of our intellectual dass had not been
(‘xclusively trained in high-class deportment, and

102

MY STRUGGLE

had thoroughly learned to box instead, there could
have been no German Revolution of bullies, deserters
and such-like. That was only made possible becausc.
our higher school education produced not men, but
rather officials, engineers, jurists, litterateurs and—in
Order to keep this intellectuality alive—professors.

Our intellectual leadership has always produced
brilliant results, but our cultivation of will-power has
been beneath criticism.

Our German nation, which now lies in a state ol
collapse, kicked at by everybody, needs the suggestive
strength produced by self-confidence. This self-con-
fidence must be cultivated in the younger members ol’
the nation from childhood onwards. Their whol(‘
education and training must be directed towards giving
them a conviction that they are superior to others. |
Through bodily strength and skill the youth must c
recover faith in the unconquerableness of his nation.
For what once led the German hosts to victory was the
sum of the confidence which each individual feit in
himself, and all feit in their leaders. It is the con¬
viction that freedom can once again be achieved. But
that conviction can only be the final product of a
Sentiment shared by millions of individuals.

Let no one make a mistake about this : Vast as>j
was the collapse of our nation, equally vast must bc
the effort one day to end this unhappy condition. Only
by an immense output of national will-power, thirst foi
freedom and passionate devotion can we restore what
has been missing in us.

It is the duty of the national State to cultivatc
bodily efficiency not only during the official school
years, but also when school days are over it must sec
to it that, as long as a young man is still undergoing
bodily development, this development shall turn out a
blessing to him. It is foolish to think that the State’s

MY STRUGGLE

163

I ight to supervise its young citizens ends suddenly with
ihe end of their school time, only to recommence when
ilicy begin their military service. The right is a duty
and is equally there at all times.

The Army also is not there merely to teach a man
liow to march and stand at attention, but it has to act
as the final and highest school of national Instruction.
'The young recruit must, of course, learn the use of his
vveapon, but at the same time he must continue his
iraining for his future life. In that school the boy
sliall be transformed into a man ; he shall not merely
learn to obey, but shall be trained with a view to
(‘ommanding at some future time. He shall learn to
l)c silent, not only when he is justly blamed, but to
l)car injustice in silence, if necessary.

Fortified by confidence in his own strength, filled
with the esprit de corps which he feels in common with
{lie rest, the boy shall attain to the conviction that his
nation is unconquerable.

When his military service is over he must be able
to show two documents : his legal papers, as citizen of
the State, which allow him to take his part in public
affairs, and his certificate of health, stating that, as
regards health, he is fit to marry.

In the case of female education, the main stress
should be laid on bodily training ; and after that, on
development of character ; and, last of all, of the
intellect. But the one absolute aim of female education
must be with a view to the future mother.

How often in the War was the complaint not heard
ihat our people were so little able to hold their tongues,
and how difficult it was, therefore, to keep even impor-
(ant secrets from the enemy’s knowledge ! But con-
sider for yourself; did German education before the
War ever bother to represent silence as a manly vir tue ?
No, for our existing school System regards that as a
iri flin g matter. But that trifling matter costs the State

164

MY STRUGGLE

untold millions in law expenses, since ninety per cent.
of the übel cases and thc like arise simply from inability |
to keep silcnce. Gareless Statements get cast back j
equally carelessly j our national trade is constantly j
injured by manufacturers’ secrets being carelessly given |
away, and any quiet prcparations for defence of thej
country arc made illusory bccausc thc peoplc have |
never learned to hold their tongues, and never stop,
talking. In war this passion for chattering may losej
battles and bc an essential cause of a war ending badly. |
It ought to be realized that what is not practised in j
youth cannot be learned when a man is fully grown

up. j

Deliberate development in our schools of the nner |

qualities is to-day non-existent. From now on it musti
be considered in quite a different light. Xrustworthi- 1
ness, readiness for self-sacrifice, silence, are virtues which
a great nation needs, and training in them in our j
schools is more important than a lot of the stuff which j
now fills the school curriculum. j

Thus the educational work of the national State |
must lay great stress on formation of character side by j
side with cultivation of the body. Many moral defects, ,
now inherent in thc body of the nation, might by con- j
sistent training be very greatly modified, even if not ,
entirely extirpated.

People have often complained that throughout
November and December, 1918 , there was failure in
every quarter, and that from the M^onarch down to the
last divisional commander no one could summon up
courage to comc to any independent decision.^ That
terrible fact is a curse of our education, for in that
cruel catastrophe there appeared on a vast scale what
was universally present in minor matters. It is this
lack of will-power and not lack of war material which
makes us to-day incapable of senous rcsistance. It lies
deep down in our nation and prevents us taking up

MY STRUGGLE

165

.Iccision with a risk attached, just as if greatness in
•iction did not consist of the daring displayed. A
(Jcrman general succeeded, without realizing it, in
iliscovering a classic formula for this miserable want of
(Iccision ; he said : “1 never act unless I can count on
l'ifty-one per cent. of success.” This “fifty-one per
Cent.” sums up the tragedy of the German collapse.

The present-day terror of responsibility is all on the
.same lines. The fault is in the education of thc young ;
it permeates all public life and finds its crown in the
Institution of parliamentary government.

Just as the national State must in future pay full
.ittention to cultivation of will-power and decision, it
must implant in the hearts of the young from child-
l\ood onwards joy in responsibility and courage to own
iip to faults.

Scientific training, which to-day is the be-all and
rnd-all of all State education, can be adopted by the
national State, with certain alterations, which may be
considered under three heads.

In the first place, the youthful brain must not be
l)urdened with subjects, ninety per cent. of which it
does not need and thereforc forgets again. Take, for
instance, an ordinary State official, who has passed out
of the Gymnasium (public day school) or the Oberreal¬
schule (modern school), in his thirty-sixth or fortieth
ycar. How little he has retained of all that was
crammed into him !

Ther System of teaching, which I indicatc gcnerally,
will be quite sufficient for the majority of young people ;
whilst the others, who will need a language, for instance,
later on, will be enabled to build upon it and study it
exhaustively of their own free choice.

It will also provide the school day with the time
necessary for bodily training and for the increased
requirements in other respects, as I have already
indicated.

i66

MY STRUGGLE

In the methods of teaching history especially,
alterations must be considered. In ninety-nine cascs
out of one hundred the results of the present-day System
are lamentable. A few dates, birth-figures and namcs
are all that remain, whilst the broad, clear lines an*
altogether absent. The essentials which really matter
are never taught, but it is left for the more or less
talented genius of the individual to discover the inner
meaning of the flood of dates and the succession of
events.

In the teaching of history reduction of the matter
to be taught must be considered. For history is not
studied merely to discover what happened, but in order
that it may give instruction for the future and con-
tinued existence of our own nation.

There should be no break-away from the study ol’
the antique. Rightly conceived on broad lines, Roman
history continues to be the best instruction, not only:
for now but for all periods. I

It is the duty of the national State to see to it that
a History of the World is eventually written, in which
the question of Race occupies a prominent position.

The little account taken by our school teaching
to-day, in the secondary schools especially, with regard
to professions in after life is best proved by the fact
that men from three quite different kinds of school
can enter the same profession. What counts, therefore,
is general education only, and not specialized cram-
ming. But cases requiring specialized knowledge can-
not, of course, be catered for in the curriculum of our
secondary schools, as they are to-day.

The national State must lose no time in Clearing
away such imperfections.

The second alteration required by our school
System is as follows :

A sharp cleavage must be effected between general
and specialized technical training. Since the latter

MY STRUGGLE

167

ilireatens to sink into the Service of Mammon more and
inore, general education, at least in its ideal conception,
must continue to act as counterweight to it. We must
ding to the principle that industry and technical Science
•nid trade can only flourish as long as a national Com¬
munity, with high ideals, provides the necessary setting.
Uy this is meant not material selfishness, but readiness
(br sacrifice and joy in renunciation.

To-day there is no clear definition of the “State’’ as
.1 conception ; nothing is left to be taught but local
patriotism. In the old Germany it mostly took the
l'orm of somewhat dim glorification of minute poten-
tates, whose very numbers made any worthy apprecia-
lion of the greatness of our nation a matter of impos-
sibility from the Start. The result was that our people
;is a whole got a very imperfect notion of German
history. It missed the main lines. It is thus obvious
ihat no man could ever achieve any real enthusiasm
Ibr the nation in such a fashion.

No one knew how to represent the really important
men of our nation to present-day scholars as glorious
lieroes, how to concentrate universal attention upon
them, and so create a solid sentiment.

Since the Revolution made its entry into Germany
and monarchical patriotism faded away of itself, the
(caching of history has really pursued but one aim,
(hat of mere acquisition of knowledge. The State, as
it is now, has no use for national enthusiasm ; what it
would like it will never get. There is but little chance
of permanent resisting power in dynastic patriotism in
an age governed by the principle of nationality, and
cven less of enthusiasm for a republic. For there can
l)e no possible doubt that the German people would
never have held out in the field for four and a half
years if their motto had been “For the Republic”.

This Republic is populär with the rest of the world.

i68

MY STRUGGLE

A weak man is always better liked by those who makc
use of him than a rough-mannered man. Indeed, thc
enemy’s sympathy with this form of State is its most
destructive criticism. They like the German Republic
and allow it to go on, since no better ally in the work
of enslaving our nation could possibly be found.

The national State will have to fight for its life.
The Dawes proposals will not help it to defend itself.
For its life and self-protection it will require just what
men now believe they can dispense with. The morc
perfect and valuable it is in form and essence, the morc
will its opponents resent and resist it. The citizens
will then be its best protection, rather than its weapons.
Fortress walls will not cover it, but rather the living
walls of men and women, full of love for the Father-
land and fanatical nationalist enthusiasm.

The third recommendation deals with scientificj
teaching : |

The national State will look upon Science as a!
means for increasing national pride. Not only world -1
history, but also the history of civilization, must bei
taught from this point of view. An inventor should]
appear great not merely as an inventor, but even morcj
so as a fellow-countryman. Admiration of any great *
deed must be combined with pride because the for-1
tunate doer of it is a member of our own nation. Wc |
must extract the greatest from the mass of great names
in German history and place them before the youth in
so impressive a fashion that they may become thc i
pillars of an unshakable nationalist sentiment.

There is no such thing as nationalism which merely'
considers dass. One can only be proud of one’s
nation if there is no dass of which one must feel ashamed;
but a nation, half of which is in misery, worn with carc,
or indeed corrupt, makes a picture so bad that no onc

MY STRUGGLE

169

can feel pride in it. Not until a nation is sound in
all its parts, body and soul, can the joy of belonging
to it rightly swell to that high feeling which we call
“national pride”. But this high pride will only come
to a man who knows the greatness of his nation. The
fear of Chauvinism, which is feit in our time, is the
mark of its impotence.

This world is undoubtedly going through great
changes. The only question is whether the outcome
will be the good of Aryan humanity or profits for the
eternal Jew.

The task of the national State will, therefore, be to
preserve the race and fit it to meet the final and greatest
decisions on this globe by suitable education of its
vouth. The nation which is first in the field will reap
the victory.

From the point of view of the race this education
should be completed by Service in the Army ; just as
for ordinary Germans the period of military Service
ought to count as the conclusion of normal education.

Great though the importance of bodily and mental
training will be in the national State, selection of
the best individuals will be equally important intrinsic-
ally. This is treated very casually to-day. As a rule
it is the children of better-class parents in good circum-
stances who are considered suited for higher training.
The question of talent plays a subordinate part. Talent
can really only be estimated relatively. A farmer’s
son may have far morc talent than onc of parents with
many generations of high positions behind them, if he
is behind the ordinary citizen’s child in general attain-
ments. The latter’s superior knowledge, however, has
no Connection with greater or less talent, but is rooted
in the essentially greater wealth of impressions received
by the child as a result of his more comprehensive
education and the more varied surroundings of his life.

1"J0

MY STRUGGLE

Knowledge obtained by cramming will not produce
the inventive qualities, but only that which is inspired
by talent ; no one, however, in Germany attaches any
value to that to-day ; nothing but the crying need for
it will call it out.

Here is another educative task for the national
State. It is not its duty to confine deciding influence
in the hands of an existing dass of society but it is its
duty to draw the most competent brains forward out
of the total mass of the nation and promote them to
place and dignity. It is the State’s Obligation to give
certain defined education in the national school to the
average child, but it must also offer to talent the oppor-
tunity which it ought to enjoy. It should consider it
its highest duty to open the doors of the higher State
educational establishments, without distinction, to talent
of every sort, in whatever dass it appears.

There is a further reason why the State should give
its attention to this matter. In Germany, especially,
the intellectual dass is so rigidly shut up in itself away
from the rest of the world that it has no living ties with
the classes below it. There are two ill-effects from
this : first this dass has neither understanding for or
sympathy with the mass of the people. It has been
cut off from all Connection with them too long for it
still to possess the needful psychological comprehension
of the people. It has become a stranger to them.
Secondly, this upper dass lacks the essential will-power ;
for this is always weaker among the intelligentzia than
in the primitive masses. God knows that we Germans
have never failed in the department of knowledge,
that we have failed all the more in will-power and
determination. The more intellectual our statesmen,
for instance, were, the weaker most of them were in
real accomplishment. Our political preparation for
war and our technical armaments were insufficient not
because the brains governing our nation were too little
educated, but rather because our rulers were too highly

MY STRUGGLE

171

educated, stuffed with knowledge and intellect, and
empty of sound instinct and utterly wanting in energy
and boldness. It was our nation’s sad fate to have to
fight for its life under a Ghancellor who was a philo-
sophizing weakling. If we had been led by some
robust man of the people, instead of a Bethmann-
Hollweg, the Grenadier private’s heroic blood would
not have been shed in vain. Moreover, the exag-
geratedly highbrow qualities of the material from
which our leaders came provided the best possible
allies for the scoundrels of November. By its shameful
manner of choking the national welfare which was
entrusted to it, instead of furthering it by might and
main, that intellectuality created the conditions which
made the success of the other side a certainty.

The Roman Catholic Church sets an example in
this Connection, from which much may be learned.
The celibacy of its priests obliges it to draw the suc-
ceeding generation for the priesthood not from its
own ranks, but from the mass of the people. Most
people are unaware of this particular significance of
celibacy. It is the foundation of the vigorous strength
which is instinct in that ancient institution.

It will be the duty of the national State in its
educative capacity to see to it that there is perpetual
renewal of the intellectual dass by fresh blood from
below. It is obligatory on the State to select with the
utmost care and exactitude from the whole sum of its
nationals all human material with obvious natural
talent, and apply it in the Service of the State. In our
World, as it is to-day, this appears to be impossible.

All work has a twofold value, the purely material
and the ideal. Its material value rests in the impor-
tance of the work done, measured not so much by its
material aspect as by its essential needfulness ; whereas,
ideally speaking, there is equality among men, from
the moment that each individual in his own sphere,

172

xMY STRUGGLE

whatever that may be, exerts himself to do bis best.
The estimate of a man’s value must depend on the
way in which he performs the task entrusted to him
by the Community. For the labour of the individual
is only the means, not the object, of his existence.
Rather must he continue to form and ennoble himself
as a man, but this can only be possible within the
frame of the culture which he shares and which must
always have its foundation in some State.

But the present day is working its own ruin ; it
introduces universal suffrage, chatters about equal
rights and can give no reason for so thinking. In its
eyes material rewards are the expression of a man’s
worth, thus shattering the basis for the noblest equality
that could possibly exist. For equality does ncver, and
can never, rest on a man’s achievements by themselves,
but it is possible, granted that every man fulfils his own
special obligations. This, and this only, can set aside
the chances of nature when a man’s worth is judged,
and each man forges his own significance.

It may be that gold has becomc the one dominant
power in the life of to-day ; yet a time will comc
when men shall bow before higher gods. Therc is
much to-day which owes its existence to the desire for
money and property, but little is included in it the
non-existence of which would leave mankind the
poorer.

It is one of the tasks of our Movement to hold out
prospects of a time when the individual will be given
what he needs in Order to live, but also to maintain
the principle that man does not live for material enjoy-
ment alone. This will find expression in a wise grading
of earnings such as shall make it possible for every
honest worker to be certain of living an orderly, honour-
ablc life as a man and a citizen.

Let it not bc said that this is an imaginary ideal,

MY STRUGGLE

173

which this world could not stand in practice and could
never actually attain.

Even we are not so simple as to imagine that a
faultless age can be successfully brought into being.
But this does not release us from the Obligation to
combat the faults which are known of, abolish weak-
nesses and strive for the ideal. Bitter realization will of
itself produce only too many limitations. For that
very reason men must try to serve the final aim.
Failures must not turn them away from their objective,
just as the law cannot be spurned merely because
mistakes creep into it, nor can medicine be despised
because there will always be illnesses. Men should be
careful not to have too low an estimate of the strength
of an ideal.

GHAPTER III

CmZENS AND SUBJEGTS OF THE STATE

institution which to-day is wrongly named
X “the State’’ only knows of two kinds of individual :
State citizens and foreigners. State citizens are all
those who, either by birth or naturalization, enjoy the
rights of State citizenship ; foreigners are those who
enjoy similar rights under other States.

Nowadays these rights are acquired, in the first
place, by the fact of being born within the frontiers of
a State. Race and nationality play no part in it.
The child of a negro who once lived in a German pro-
tectorate and now is domiciled in Germany is auto-
matically a citizen of the German State.

The whole procedure of acquiring State citizenship
is not very different from that of becoming a member of
an automobile club for instance.

I know that this is unwelcome hearing; but any-
thing crazier and less thought out than our present
laws of State citizenship is hardly possible to conceive.
But there is at least one State in which feeble attempts
to achieve a better arrangement are apparent. I, of
course, do not mean our pattem German Republic,
but the United States of America, where they are
trying, partially, at any rate, to include commonsense
in their councils. They refuse to allow immigration
of elements which are bad from the health point of
view, and absolutely forbid naturalization of certain
defined races, and thus are making a modest Start in
the direction of a view which is not unlike the con-
ception of the national State.

174

a

MY STRUGGLE

175

The national State divides its inhabitants into three
classes : State citizens. State subjects, and foreigners.

In principle, birth only gives the Status of a subject.
This does not carry with it the right to serve yet as
State ofhcial nor to take active part in politics, in the
sense of voting at elections. In the case of every
“State subject” race and nationality have to be proved.
The “subject” is free at any time to cease being a
subject and become a citizen in the country correspond-
ing with his nationality. The “foreigner” is only
different from the “subject” in that he is a subject in
a foreign State.

The young “subject” of German nationality is
bound to undergo the school education which is laid
down for every German. Later on he must consent to
undergo the bodily excrcises as laid down by the State,
and fmally he enters the Army. Military training is
universal. After his military Service is over, the healthy
young man with a blameless record will be solemnly
invested with the rights of State citizenship. This is
the most important document for his whole life on
earth.

It must be held in greater honour to be a citizen
of this Reich, even if only a crossing-sweeper, than to
be a king in a foreign State.

The German girl is a “State subject”, but marriage
makes her a citizen. But a German woman engaged
in Business may be granted rights of citizenship.

CHAPTER IV

PERSONALITY AND THE GONGEPTION OF THE

NATIONAL STATE

I T would be folly to expect to measure a man’s worth
by the race he belongs to and at the same time to
declare war on the Marxist axiom, “One man is the
same as any other”, unless we were prepared to pursue
it to its final consequences.

Anyone who believes to-day that a national
Nationalist-Socialist State should, by purely mechanical
means and better construction of its economic life,
make itself different from other States, i.e., by a better
compromise between riches and poverty or by broaden-
ing the control of the economic process or by fairer
recompense, by doing away with too great differences
in wages, will find himself in an absolute impasse; he
has not the slightest conception of what we mean by a
world-view. The methods described above offer no
hope of permanency ; still less do they promise a great
future. A nation which puts trust in reforms so super¬
ficial will obtain no guarantec whatever of victory in
the general struggle of nations. A Movement which
founds its mission on such compromises as these will,
in truth, introduce no great reforms, real because far-
reaching, because its action will never touch anything
but the surface of things.

The first Step which visibly drew mankind away
from the animal world was that which led towards
invention. Man’s first skilled measures in the struggle
with the rest of the animals were in their origin,
undoubtedly, his management of creatures which had

176

MY STRUGGLE

177

\

special capabilities. Even then, personality was clearly
that which produced decisions and achievements, which
were later on accepted by.the whole of humanity as a
matter of course. A man’s knowledge of his own
l)Owers, which I consider even now is the foundation
of all strategy, was due originally to a determined
brain, and not until perhaps thousands of years had
passed was it universally accepted as a perfectly natural
ihing.

Man crowned this first discovery with a second ;
lie learned, amongst other things, how to live whilst
cngaged in his struggle for life. And so began the
inventive activity peculiar to man, the results of which
we see all around us. And it is the result of the Creative
power and capability of the individual person. It was
I)rofoundly instrumental in making the man who has
the power of continually rising higher still. But what
were once simple artifices helping hunters in the forest
in their struggle for existence are now the brilliant
scientific discoveries of our present time, and these help
mankind in the struggle for existence to-day and are
forging the weapons for struggles in the future.

The labour of evolving pure theory, which is incap-
able of measurement but which is the necessary pre-
liminary for all further material discovery, is again
seen to be the exclusive product of the individual.
The multitude does not invent, majorities neither
organize nor think; it is always only the one man, the
individual.

A human community is only seen to be well organized
if it furthers in every possible way the work of these
Creative forces and employs them for the good of the
community. Organization must be the embodiment of
the endeavour to place the brains over the multitude
and to subjugate the multitude to the brains.

Thus Organization may not prevent the brains from
einerging from the multitude; but it must, on the

M

178

MY STRÜGGLE

contrary, by its own conscious action, make it in the
highest degree possible and facilitate it. The hard
fight for life, above all things, causes the brains to
emerge.

State administration and the strength of the nations
incorporated in the defensive forces are dominated by
the idea of personality and the authority attaching to
it and by responsibility towards the higher-placed
individual.

The political life of to-day alone has persistently
turned its back on this principle of Nature. Whilst all
human civilization is but the outcome of the Creative
force of personality, in the community as a whole, and
especially amongst its leaders, the principle of the
dignity of the majority makes a pretence of being the
deciding authority, and it is beginning gradually to
poison all life below it—and, in fact, to break it up.
The destructive workings of Judaism in various parts
of the nation can at bottom only be ascribed to the
perpetual effbrt to undermine the importance of per-
sonality throughout the nations who are their hosts,
and to Substitute the will of the multitude.

We now see that Marxism is the enunciated form of
the Jewish attempt to abolish the importance of per¬
sonality in all departments of human life and to set
the mass of numbers in its place. In politics the
Parliamentary form of government is its expression, and
that is what is working such mischief, from the smallest
parish council up to the power Controlling the entire
Reich.

Marxism has never been able to found a culture or '
create an economic System by itself, but, moreover, it
has never really Deen in a position to carry on an
existing System in accordance with its own principles.
But, after a very short time, it was forced to retrace its
Steps and grant concessions to the theory of the principle

MY STRÜGGLE

179

of personality; even in its own Organization it is
11 nable to deny that principle.

The national theorv of the world must therefore be
completely differentiated from the Marxist theory ; it
must pin its faith on race, and on the importance of
personality also, and make them the pillars supporting
the whole of its edifice. These are the basic factors of
its view of the world:

The national State must work untiringly to set all
government, especially the highest, that is the political
leadership, free from the principle of control by
majorities—i.e., the multitude—so as to secure the
undisputed authority of the individual in its stead.

The best form of State and Constitution is that
which with natural sureness of hand raises the best
brains of the community to a position of leadership and
predominant influence.

There must be no majority making decisions, but
merely a body of responsible persons, and the word
“ Council” will revert to its ancient meaning. Every
man shall have councillors at his side, but the decision
shall be made by the one Man.

The national State does not suffer that men whose
education and occupation has not given them special
knowledge shall be invited to advise or judge on sub-
jects of a specialized nature, such as economics. The
State will therefore subdivide its representative body
inta political committees including a committee repre-
senting professions and trades. In Order to obtain
advantageous co-operation between the two, there will
be over them a permanent select Senate. But neither
Senate nor Chamber will have power to make decisions ;
they are appointed to work and not to make decisions.
Individual members may advise, but never decide.
That is the exclusive prerogative of the responsible
President for the time being.

i8o

MY STRUGGLE

As regards the possibility of carrying out our know^
ledge in practice, I may remind my readers that the
parliamentaiy principle of decision by majorities has
not always governed the human race ; on the contraiy,
it only appears during quite short periods of history,
and those are always periods of decadence in nations
and States.

In any case, let no one imagine that purely theoretic
measures from above will produce such a change, since
logically it cannot stop at the Constitution of a State,
but all legislation, and, indeed, the citizen’s whole life,
will have to be saturated with it. Such a revolution
will and can only come about by means of a Movement,
itself built up in the spirit of that idea, and therefore
itself the begetter of the coming State.

Thus the National Socialist movement must to-day
identify itself with that idea and carry it out in practice
within its own Organization, so that it may not only
be able to guide the State in the right path, but may
have the perfected body of the State ready for its
occupation.

CHAPTER V

WORLD THEORY AND ORGANIZATION

national State, of which I have attempted to
draw a general picture, will not be brought into
being by the mere knowledge of the requirements of
that State. It is not enough to know what such a
State ought to look like. The problem of its birth is a
far more important one. We cannot wait until the
present Parties, which draw their profits from the State
as it is, change their attitude of their own initiative.
This is all the less possible, since their real leaders are
Jews, and Jews only.

The Jew pursues his object irresistibly in his dealings
with the millions of German bourgeois and proletarians,
who are sliding along to destruction chiefly owing to
their indolence, stupidity and timidity. The Jew is
fully conscious of his final aim. A party led by him has
no choice but to fight for his interests and has nothing
in common with the character of Aryan nations.

Thus, if an attempt is to be made to realize the
ideal of a national State, we shall have to ignore the
forces now Controlling the life of the public and seek
for another force, determined and able to take up the
struggle for that ideal. For there is a struggle ahead
of US, if our first task is not creation of a new conception
of a State, but removal of the present Jewish conception.

The first weapon of a young doctrine, containing
new and great principles, must, however much indivi-
duals may dislike it, be the probe of sharp criticism.

Marxism possessed an objective and is aware of
constructive ambition (even if this is merely creation of

i8i

102

MY STRUGGLE

a despodsm of Jewish world finance) ; but it neverthc-
less gave itself up to shattering criticism for a wholc
seven years. Then began its so-called “constructivc
work”. This was perfectly right, natural and logical.

A World theory is intolerant and is not content with
being one Party amongst a number of other Parties ;
it insists on exclusive and persistent recognition of itself
and on an absolutely new conception of the whole ol
public life in accordance with its views. Thus it cannot
tolerate continuance of a force representing the former
conditions.

It is the same with religions.

Christianity was not content with merely erecting
its own altar ; it was forced to proceed to destroy the
altars of the heathen. Such fanatical intolerance alone
made it possible to build up that adamantine creed ;
it is an absolutely essential condition of its existence.

Political Parties are always ready to compromise ;
world theories never are. Political Parties bargain with
their opponents ; world theories proclaim that they
themselves are infallible.

Even political Parties almost always at first cherish
a hope of rising to despotic authority ; they nearly
always contain some little trace of a world theory. But
the poverty of their programme robs them of the
heroism which is dernanded by a world theory. Their
readiness to conciliate attracts to them the petty weak
spirits, with whom no crusade can be conducted. So
they usually stick fast early in their history in the
slough of their own miserable pettiness.

A world theory can never be victorious with its
ideas unless it unites in its ranks the holdest and strongest
elements of its age and nation and forms them into a
solid fighting Organization. It is also essential for it
to extract certain definite ideas out of the general world

MY STRUGGLE

183

[)icture and present them in a concise, striking form,
suitable to serve as a creed for a new community of
mankind. Whereas the programme of a Party, which
is merely political, is the receipt for getting good results
from a fortheoming election, that of a world theory is
equivalent to a declaration of war-on the existing order
of things, in fact, against an accepted view of life.

It is not necessary for every single fighter to be
granted full insight into and exact knowledge of the
latest ideas and mental processes of the leaders of the
Movement.

An army would not be much good if all the fighting
men were generals, and a political Movement would
not be much good in defending a world theory if it
consisted merely of a collection of ‘‘intellectuals”. No,
it needs the primitive fighting man as well, for there
can be no internal discipline without him.

By its very nature an Organization cannot stand
unless leaders of high intellect are served by a large
mass of men inspired by sentiment. It would be
harder to maintain discipline in a Company of two
hundred men, all equally gifted intellectually, than in
one containing one hundred and ninety less gifted and
ten with higher intellects.

The Organization of Social Democracy is a case in
point ; its army consists of officers and men. The
German worker, disbanded from the Army, is the
private soldier ; the Jewish intellectual is the officer.

In Order that the national idea may emerge out of
the vague desire of the present day and succeed in
producing clear thought, it must select certain definite
leading sentences from the mass of broad conceptions.
With this in view the programme of the new Move¬
ment was drawn up in the form of a limited number
of leading sentences, twenty-five in all. Their object
is, first of all, to give the man in the Street a rough

184

MY STRUGGLE

picture of the intentions of the Movement. To somc fi
extent they are a confession of political faith, partly for |l
the advantage of the cause and partly with the purposc |
of binding and fusing together its members by an I
engagement recognized in common by all. §

By our policy of declaring on broad lines a doctrine 1
which is sound in principle we consider that it is less |
harmful to ding to a conception, even if it does not |-
altogether fit actual realities than by trying to improve Ij
it, to lay open to discussion some basic law of the m
Movement, which has hitherto counted as unalterable, I
since most evil consequences might follow ; in fact, il ■
cannot be done whilst a Movement is fighting for fl
victor)\ What is essential must be sought not in I
externals, but in the inner sense ; and in that there is I
nothing to be changed. We can only hope that in its I
own interests the Movement will retain the strength fl
needed for its battles by avoiding any action showing fl
evidence of divisions and lack of solidarity. fl

Much may be learned from the Roman Gatholic fl
Ghurch. Though the body of its doctrine clashes with fl
exact Science and research on many points—unneces- fl
sarily in certain respects—the Ghurch is not prepared fl
to sacrifice a single syllable of its doctrines. It has fl
realized very correctly that its power of resistance fl
depends not on being more or less in harmony with fl
the scientific events of the moment—which are, as a fl
matter of fact, always altering—but rather on clinging fl
firmly to dogmas once laid down, which on the whole fl
do express the character of the faith. As a consequence fl
the Ghurch Stands firmer than ever before. fl

With its Programme of twenty-five theses the National fl
Socialist German Workers’ Party accepted a basis, fl
which must be maintained unshakable. Now and in fl
future it is, and will be, the task of the members of our fl
Movement not to criticize and alter those leading 1
principles, but to regard themselves as bound to insist fl
upon them. In its youth the young Movement owed fl

MY STRUGGLE 185

its name to them, and the programme of the Party
was drawn up in accordance with them.

The basic ideas of the National Socialist movement
are nationalist, and in an equal degree nationalist ideas
are National Socialist ; if National Socialism is to be
victorious it must adhere absolutely and exclusively to
that conviction. It is its duty no less than its right to
proclaim the fact most definitely that any attempt to
represent the nationalist idea outside the limits of the
National Socialist German Workers’ Party is inadmis-
sible, and that in the majority of cases it rests on a
false foundation.

All kinds of associations and cliques, little groups
and, as far as I care, ‘‘great Parties” as well, claim for
themselves the word “nationalist” ; this in itself is but
one effect of the influence of the National Socialist
movement. But for it, it would never have occurred
to all these organizations even to mention the word
“nationalist” ; it would have suggested no meaning to
them in particular, and they would have had
nothing whatever to do with the conception. The
N.S.G.W.P. (N.S.D.A.P.) was the first to attach a mean¬
ing to that word, which contains so much, and which
is now in common use by every sort of person. Our
Movement has proved out and out in its propaganda
Work the strength of the nationalist idea, so that greed
of advantage is forcing the othcrs at least to pretend
to similar aspirations.

CHAPTER VI

I

THE STRUGGLE IN THE EARLY DAYS : THE
IMPORTANCE OF ORATORY

W E had hardly finished with the first great meetin^
of February 24th, 1920, in the Hofbrähausfestsaal
at Munich, when preparations for the next one werc
under way. Hitherto we had not dared to think ol
holding a meeting once a month, or even once a fort-
night, in a city such as Munich, but now a large onr
was to be arranged for each week.

At that time the Hall held an almost sacred meanini;
for US National Socialists. It was better filled each
time and the people were more and more attentivc.
The proceedings nearly always started with the subjeci
of War Guilt, about which nobody then bothered, and
went on to the Peace Treaties ; violent methods of
Speech were found suitable and, indeed, necessary.

In those days, if a public mass meeting, at which
not phlegmatic bourgeois but harried proletarians were
present, dealt with the Versailles Treaty, it meant an
attack on the Republic, and was held to be a sign of'
reactionary, if not monarchist, feeling, The moment
Versailles was criticized, there would regularly be
interruptions : “And Brest-Litovsk ?” The crowd
would continue to shout until it gradually got more*
heated or the Speaker gave up trying to persuade them.
We feit inclined to dash our heads against the wall
with despair at such a set of people ! • They would noi
understand that Versailles was a shame and a disgracr,
or that dictated peace was a frightful plundering of oin
nation. The Marxist work of destruction and the
enerny’s poison propaganda had made these people
blind to all reason. And yet no one might complain;

186

MY STRUGGLE

187

for how immeasurably great was the guilt of the other
side ! What had the bourgeoisie done to stem this
terrible disintegration, or by better and more intelligent
liandling to pave the way for freedom of action ?
Nothing whatever !

I myself saw clearly that, as far as the Movement,
then in its infancy, was concerned, the question of
War Guilt must be cleared up on the lines of historical
truth.

There is naturally much temptation for any weak
Movement to act and shout with the crowd at moments
when a strong Opponent has succeeded in deceiving
and driving the people to come to some lunatic decision,
especially if it contains a few points—even if illusory—
in favour of doing so, from the point of view of that
young Movement.

I have experienced such cases on several occasions,
when the utmost energy was required to prevent the
ship from drifting in the general current started by
artificial means, or indeed driving along with it. The
last occasion was when our infernal Press, the Hecuba
of the German nation’s life, succeeded in giving the
South Tyrol question a prominence which will have
serious consequences for the German nation. Without
considering what cause they were serving, several
so-called “nationalisP’ men, parties and societies joined
in the cry, simply from fear of the public feeling excited
by the Jews, and foolishly gave their support in a struggle
against a System which we Germans ought, especially
just at the present crisis, to regard as the one bright
spot in this corrupt world. Whilst the international
world-Jew is slowly but surely strangling us, our so-called
“patriots” are raging against the Man and a System
that have had the courage to tear themselves free, in
one bit of the world at least, from the Jew-Freemason
embrace, and to oppose the international world-poison
with the forces of nationalism.

i88

MY STRUGGLE

It soon became evident that our opponents, especially
when debating with us, were armed with a definite
repertoire of arguments and that their points against our
Claims kept constantly recurring in their Speeches ; this
similarly pointed to conscious and unified training.
And so it was in fact. To-day I am proud of having
discovered the means not only of making their Propa¬
ganda ineflfectual, but also of beating the frarners of it
with their own words. Two years later I was a master
of the craft.

Whenever I spoke, it was important to get a clear
idea beforehand of the probable form and character of
the arguments we had to expect during the discussion,
and then to tear them to pieces in my own opening
Speech ; the thing was to mention all the possible
arguments contra at once and prove their hollowness.

This was the reason why, after my first lecture on
the Versailles Peace Treaty which I delivered to the
troops in my capacity as lecturer to them, I made an
alteration and now spoke on the ‘Teace Treaties of
Brest-Litovsk and Versailles”. For I quickly ascer-
tained in the discussion following my first lecture that
the men really knew nothing whatever about the Brest-
Litovsk Treaty, but that it was due to the successful
Propaganda of their parties that they imagined that
Treaty as one of the most shameful acts of oppression
in the world. The persistency with which this lie was
put before the public was the cause why millions of
Germans regarded the Versailles Treaty as nothing
more than a just retribution for the crime we committecl
at Brest-Litovsk ! And therefore they considered any
real struggle against Versailles would be wrong, and
in many cases there was genuine moral dislike of such
a proceeding. And that was the reason why the shame-
less and monstrous word ‘‘Reparations” was able to
find a home in Germany. In my lectures I put the
two Peace Treaties together, compared them point by
point and demonstrated how truly and immensely

MY STRUGGLE

189

humane the one was in contradistinction to the inhuman
cruelty of the other ; the result was most remarkable.
Once more a great lie was expunged from the hearts
and brains of audiences amounting to thousands, and
a truth was planted in place of it.

These meetings brought profit to me in that I slowly
became an orator at mass-meetings and that the pathos
and gesture, acquired in large halls holding a thousand
people, became a matter of second nature to me.

Our first meetings were distinguished by the fact
that there were tables covered with leaflets, papers
and Pamphlets of every kind. But we relied chiefly
on the spoken word. And in fact the latter is the sole
force capable of producing really great revolutions of
Sentiment, for reasons which are psychological.

An orator receives continuous guidance from his
audience, enabling him to correct his lecture, since he
can measure all the time on the countenances of his
hearers the extent to which they are successful in
following his arguments intelligently, and whether his
words are producing the effect he desires, whereas the
writer has no acquaintance with his readers. Hence
he is unable to prepare his sentences with a view to
addressing a definite crowd of people, sitting in front
of his eyes, but he is obliged to argue in general terms.

Supposing that an orator observes that his hearers
do not understand him, he will make his explanation
so .elementary and clear that every single one must
take it in ; if he feels that they are incapable of follow¬
ing him, he will build up his ideas carefully and slowly
until the weakest member has caught up ; again, when
once he senses that they seem not to be convinced that
he is correct in his argument, he will repeat them over
and over again with fresh illustrations and himself
state their unspoken objections ; he will continue thus
until the last group of the Opposition show him by their

190

MY STRUGGLE

behaviour and play of expression that they have capitu-
lated to bis demonstration of the case.

Not infrequently it is a case of overcoming pre-
judices which do not come from their understanding
but are mainly unconscious and supported by senti- j
ment. It is a thousand times harder to overcome this
barrier of instinctive repulsion, sentimental hatred and
negative bias than to set straight opinions founded on
incorrect or mistaken knowlcdge. Ignorance and false
conceptions may be removed by teaching—obstruction
due to Sentiment never can. Nothing but an appeal •
to these hidden forces can succeed here ; it is nearly
impossible for a writer ; hardly anyone but an orator |
can hope to do so.

The force which gave Marxism its amazing power
over the masses is not the formal written work prepared
by Jewish intellectuals, but rather the vast flood of
oratorical Propaganda which has dominated the masses
in the course of years ; out of a hundred thousand
German workers not more than a hundred know of
Marx’s book, which was studied by a thousand times,,
more of the intellectual classes—especially by Jews—
than by genuine adherents of the Movement in the
lower grades. That book was not written for the
masses but exclusively for the intellectual leaders of
the Jewish machine for conquering the world ; the
agitation was conducted with very different material.
This is what marks the difference between the Marxist
and our bourgeois Press. The Marxist Press was
written by agitators, whilst the bourgeois Press pre¬
ferred to conduct agitation through its writers.

It is all one with the silly ignorance of the world
shown by our German intelligentzia that they believc
that a writer is bound to be an orator’s superior in
intellect. This view is most delightfully illustrated in

MY STRUGGLE

an article in a certain Nationalist paper, in which it is
stated that one is so often disillusioned on seeing a
Speech by some admittedly great orator in print. I
recollect another article which came into my hands
during the War ; it seized on the speeches of Lloyd
George, then Minister of Munitions, examined them
as under a microscope, only to come to the brilliant
conclusion that those speeches showed inferiority of
intellect and knowledge, and were otherwise banal and
commonplace. I obtained some of those speeches
bound in a small volume, and had to laugh out loud at
the thought that an ordinary German quill-driver
failed to see the point of those psychological master-
pieces in the way of influencing the public. The
fellow judged the speeches solely by the impression
they made on his blase intellect, whereas the great
British demagogue had been able to produce an
immense effect by their aid on his audiences, and in
the widestsense on the whole of the British lower classes.
From this point of view, that Welshman’s speeches
were most wonderful achievements, for they evinced
amazing knowledge of the mentality of the populace ;
their penetrative effect was decisive in the truest sense.

Compare with them the futile stutterings of Beth-
rnann-Hollweg, whose speeches may have been more
intellectual, but really they merely proved the man’s
inability to speak to his nation.

Lloyd George proved his equality, nay, his immeas-
urable superiority to Bethmann-Hollweg by the fact
that the form and expression of his speeches were such
as to open the hearts of his people to him and to make
them pay active obedience to his will. The very
primitiveness of those speeches, their form of expression,
and his choice of easily understood, simple Illustration,
are proofs of that Welshman’s towering political capacity.

Mass assemblies are necessary because whilst attend-
ing them the individual who feels on the point of joining

192

MY STRUGGLE

a young Movement and takes alarni if left by liimseK
receives his first Impression of a larger community,
and this has a strengthening and encouraging efFect on
most people. He submits himself to the magic influ-
ences of what we call '‘mass-suggestion”. The desires,
longings and indeed the strength of thousands is
accumulated in the mind of each individual present.
A man who enters such a meeting in doubt and hesita-
tion leaves it inwardly fortified ; he has become a
member of a community. The National Socialist
movement may nevcr ignore this.

GHAPTER VII

THE STRUGGLE WITH THE RED FORGES

I N 1919-20 and also in 1921 I attended so-called
bourgeois meetings in person. I got to know
something about those prophets of the bourgeois view
of the World, and really did not wonder, for I under-
stood why they attached so little importance to the
spoken word. I attended meetings of the Democrats,
German Nationalists, the German People’s Party and
the Bavarian People’s Party (Bavarian Centre Party).
What Struck me at once was the solid unanimity of the
audiences. Nearly all were Party followers who took
part in such demonstrations. There was no discipline,
and taken together it was more like a bored card-
party than an assembly of people who had just put
through a great revolution. The Speakers did all they
could to keep up this peaceful atmosphere. They
declaimed, or better still, most of them read, Speeches
in the style of a clever newspaper article or a learned
treatise, avoiding all strong expressions ; here and
there a feeble professional joke would be introduced, at
which the gentlemen on the platform dutifully guffawed
—not loudly but encouragingly, with gentlemanly
reserve. The whole audience dozed in a sort of trance
after three-quarters of an hour of it, with interruptions
caused by someone going out, a waitress’s clatter, or
yawns from many in the audience. At the dose the
Chairman called for a German patriotic song.

On this the meeting faded out—that is, everyone
hurried to get out, one to his beer, another to a cafe,
and others simply into the fresh air.

193

N

194

MY STRUGGLE

The National Socialist meetings, on the other hand,
were by no means “peaceable” meetings. The billow«
of two world-views raged against one another, and tliry
did not finish by grinding out a dull patriotic song Imi
fanatical outbreaks of populär and nationalist passiou,

It was important from the Start to introduce blimi
discipline into our meetings and establish absolulrly
the Chairman’s authority.

And we had dissentients at our meetings—followci 3
of the Red Flag. They came often and often in solid
masses, with a few agitators amongst them, and on
every face one could read : “We mean to have it oni
with you to-night !” Often eveiything hung on .•
thread, and only the Chairman’s energy and rougli
handling by our hall guard baffled our adversari<-3’
intentions—the latter had every reason to be annoynl
with US.

We chose red for our posters after exact and carefiil
consideration ; our intention was to irritate the Lcii^
get them into a rage and so induce them to come lo
our meetings—if only in order to break them up—so
that we got a chance of talking to them.

Our opponents then proceeded to issue appeals lo
the “class-conscious Proletariat” to go in masses to oin
meetings in order to strike at the “monarchist, reaction
ary agitation”, as represented by us, with the fist ol
the Proletariat.

Our meetings were at once crammed with work
men three-quarters of an hour before the time of tln-
meeting. They resembled a powder-cask ready to go
off at any moment with the match at the touch-holc.
But things always happened otherwise. The peoplc
came as enemies and went away, not perhaps prepared
to join US, but anyhow in a reflective mood and ready
to criticize and examine the correetness of our doctrincs.

Then the word went out : “Proletarians ! Avoid
the meetings of the Nationalist agitators !” Simil;ii
vacillating tactics were observable in the Red Press as well.

195

MY STRUGGLE

The people became curious. There was a sudden
idiange of tactics, and for a period we were treated as
I rue criminals against mankind. Article after artic e
proclainüng and demonstrating our criminality, and
scandalous tales, fabricated from A to Z, were meant
(o do the trick. But in a short time they seem to have
(’onvinced themselves that such attacks were having no
effect ; in fact, it really all helped to concentrate

general attention straight on us.

One reason why it never got as far as breaking up
our meetings was indubitably the extraordinary
cowardice displayed by our opponents’ leaders. At all
critical moments these despicable creatures waited
outside the halls for the result of the explosion.

At that period we were obliged to take the pro¬
tection of our meetings into our own hands ; one can
never count on protection by the official authoritics ;
on the contrary, experience shows that they always
favour the disturbing element. For the only real
success attending official action was, at most, in dis-
solving a meeting, i.e., stopping it altogether this was,
in fact, the aim and object of our opponents in coming

to disturb us.

Thus, we had to make up our minds thai any meet-
ing whicii depended for protection solely on the pohee
brlngs discredit on its promoters in the eyes of the

masses.

Often and often a handful of adherents has put up
a heroic resistance against a raging and violent mob of
Reds. Those fifteen or twenty men would have cer-
tainly been overwhelmed in the end. But the rest well
knew three or four times as many of them would first
get their heads knocked in, and they were not gomg to

risk that.

It was clear to anyone how the Revolution was
only possible thanks to the devastating methods of the

MY STRUGGLE

196

bourgeois who governed our nation. Even then therr
would have been plenty of fists ready to protect tlir
German nation, but there were no craniums to crack.
How often then did the eyes of my young men shine in
response when I explained to them the essentialness ol
their mission and assured them without cease that all
the wisdom of this earth is as nothing unless served.
covered and protected by force, that the mild goddess
of peace cannot move unless accompanied by the god
of war, and that every great act of peace must be prn-
tected and helped by force. In this way the idea o(
military Service came to them in a far more living form
—not in the petrified sense of the souls of superannuated
ofRcials serving the dead authority of a dead Stat(;,
but in the living realization of the duty of each man to
offer his life that his nation might live, at all times and
everywhere.

How those young men came up to the scratch ! 1

Like a swarm of hornets they rushed forth upon the
disturbers of our meetings, regardless of superiority o( j
numbers, however great, careless of wounds and bloody 1
sacrifice, filled to the brini with the great idea, the holy i
mission to clear the way for our Movement. j

As early as the summer of 1920 the troops for main- J
tenance of order were gradually assuming definite
form, and by the spring of 1921 they were divided by
degrees into Companies, which again were divided into
smaller sections.

This had become urgently necessary, since in the
meantime our activities as regards meetings had been
continuously increasing.

The Organization of our bodies of men for keeping
Order at meetings was the means of Clearing up a very
difficult question. Up tili then the movement had
possessed no Party token and no flag. The lack of
these Symbols was not only a disadvantage then, but ii
was intolerable in view of the future, since members ol

MY STRUGGLE

197

tlie Party had no distinctive token of membership, and
(br the future it was intolerable to be without some
token in the nature of a symbol of the Movement which
might be set against that of the Internationais.

More than once in my youth the psychological
importance of such a symbol had been clearly evident
to me from the point of view of sentiment. In Berlin,
after the War, I was present at a mass-demonstration of
Marxism in front of the Royal Palace. A sea of red
Hags, red scarves and red flowers gave an outward
appearance of power to that crowd, which I estimated
at about 120,000 persons. I feit and understood how
easily the man in the Street is impressed by the sug¬
gestive magic of such a grandiose piece of play-acting.

The Bourgeoisie, which as a Party represents no
world-theory, had therefore no banner. Their Party
consisted of “patriots” and went about in the colours
of the Reich.

The black-white-red of the old Empire was revived
by our so-called national bourgeois Parties as their
colours.

It is obvious that the symbol of a Situation which
might be defeated by Marxism under inglorious accom-
panying circumstances was worthless to serve as the
token under which the same Marxism was to be crushed
in its turn. However much anv decent German must
love and revere those old colours, glorious when placed
side by side in their youthful freshness, when he had
fought under them and seen the sacrifice of so many
lives, that flag had little value for the struggles of the
future.

This was the reason why we National Socialists
recognized that to hoist the old Standard would betoken
110 symbol which would express our special aims ; for
we had no wish to raise from the dead the ruined
Empire with all its blemishes, but to build up a new
State.

198

MY STRUGGLE

The Movement which to-day is fighting Marxisin
in this sense must bear on its banners the Symbol of thc.
new State.

I myself was always for keeping the old colours.
After innumerable trials I settled upon a final form :
a flag having a red ground with a white band across il
bearing on its centre a black hooked cross. After
much searching, I decided on the proper proportions
between the size of the flag and that of the white band,
and the form and thickness of the cross ; and it has
remained so ever since.

Armlets, also, of the same were at once ordered for
the men of the bodies for keeping order—red, with a
white band and hooked cross.

The new flag first appeared in public in the middlc!
of the Summer of 1920.

Two years later, when our men, which had long 1
amounted to several thousands, were now a consider- I
able storm-detachment {Sturmabteilung), it appeared I
necessary to give the fighting Organization of the new |
world-theory a special symbol of victory—a Standard. |

At that time there was in Munich no Party, barring 1
the Marxist Parties, especially no nationalist one, I
which could show mass-demonstrations such as wc I
could. The Münchener Kindl-Keller, which held 5,000 I
people, was more than once full to bursting, and there 1
was only one hall into which we had not ventured, and J
that was the Circus Krone. l

At the end of January, 1921, there was again much 1
cause for anxiety in Germany. The Paris Agreement, 1
by which Germany engaged to pay the absurd sum of jj
100 milliards of gold marks, was to be confirmed in the j
form of the London Ultimatum. |

Day after day went by and none of the great Parties ^
had taken any notice of the frightful event, and thc j
workers’ Organization could not make up its mind as 1

MY STRUGGLE 199

10 a definite date for a demonstration which was being
|)lanned.

On Tuesday, February ist, I demanded a final
decision. I was put off tili Wednesday. On that day
I demanded to be told clearly if and when the meeting
was to take place. The reply was still uncertain and
liesitating ; it was that it was intended to invite the
workers to a demonstration on that day week.

Then I lost all patience and decided to conduct a
demonstration of protest on my own responsibility. By
inidday on the Wednesday I had dictated the posters
in ten minutes and had hired the Circus Krone for the
next day, February ßrd.

In those days it was a tremendous venture. It was
quite uncertain if we could fill that vast hall, and there
was a risk of the meeting being broken up. One thing
was certain—a failure would throw us back for a long
time to come.

We had one day in which to post our bills.
Unluckily it rained on the Thursday morning, and
there was reason to fear that many people would pre-
fer remaining at home rather than hurrying to a meet¬
ing in rain and snow, especially when there was likely
to be violence and murder.

On the Thursday two lorries, which I hired, were
enveloped in red as much as possible, and two flags
were stuck on them ; each one carried fifteen or
twenty members of our Party ; Orders were given to
drive fast through the Streets, throwing out leaflets—
Propaganda for the mass meeting to be held in the
evening. It was the first time that lorries with flags
had driven through the streets containing others than
Marxists.

When I entered the great hall I feit the same joy
which I had feit a year previously at the first meeting
in the Hofbrähausfestsaal ; but it was not tili I had
forced my way through the solid wall of men and

200

MY STRUGGLE

climbed on to the platform that I perceived the full
measure of our success. The hall was before mr,
packed with thousands and thousands of people.

My theme was ‘Tuture or Ruin’’. I began to
speak and spoke for about two hours and a half. My
feeling told me after the first half-hour that the meetini^
was going to be a big success.

The bourgeois papers reported the demonstration
as having been merely ‘‘nationalist” in character ; in
their usual modest fashion thev omitted all mention o(
its Promoters.

After this Start in 1921 our meetings in Munich
became much more frequent. I took to having them
not merely once a week but sometimes two mass meet¬
ings in a week ; in fact, at midsummer and the latr
autumn there were apt to be three. We always mei
now in the Circus Krone, and ascertained to our satis-
faction that all our evenings were equally successful.

The result was a constant increase in the member-
ship of the movement.

Our adversaries were naturally not going to sii
down under such successes. So they decided to makc
one last efFort by an act of terrorism to put a final spoke
in the wheel of our meetings. The day of action
arrived a few days later. A meeting in the Hofbrau¬
hausfestsaal, at which I was to speak, was chosen for
the final reckoning. Between six and seven in th(‘
evening of November qth, 1921, I received the first
positive news that the meeting was to be definitely
broken up.

Owing to an unlucky chance, we had not under-
stood about it earlier. That very day we had moved
out of our glorious old offices in the Sterneckergasse
into others, i.e., we were out of the old ones but were
not yet in the new ones, because work was still going
on in them. The result was that there was only a ver\'
feeble body of men to keep Order in the meeting ;

MY STRUGGLE

201

nothing but a weak Company of about forty-six men
was on hand, and the alarm telephones were not in a
condition to call up sufficient reinforcements in the
course of a single hour.

I entered the vestibule of the hall at a quarter to
eight and saw that there was no doubt whatever of the
immediate Intention. The hall was packed, and the
police were stopping any more from entering. Our
enemies, who had arrived very early, were inside the
hall, and our friends were outside. The little body of
guards were waiting for me in the vestibule. I had
the door into the large hall shut and called the forty-
five or forty-six men up to me. I explained to the
young fellows that to-night, for the first time, the Move¬
ment would have to prove its faithfulness to the point
of bending and breaking, and that none of us might
leave the hall, except we were carried out dead ; but
I did not think any of them would desert me. If I saw
any man showing himself a coward, I should myself
tear his armlet off him and take away his badge. I
then called on them to go forward at once at the first
sign of an attempt to break up the meeting, and to
remember that a man defends himself best by attacking.

I was answered by three cheers which sounded

fiercer and hotter than ever before.

Then I entered the hall and saw the Situation with
my own eyes. They sat packed dose and tried to stab
me with their looks. Numberless faces were turned on
me with seething hatred, whilst others uttered yells
which meant but one thing. They knew they were the
stronger party and feit according.

It was, however, possible to Start the meeting, and

[ began to speak.

After about an hour and a half the signal was
given. A few angry cries, and a man suddenly leaped
on to a chair and yelled ^‘Liberty !” Upon which the
fighters for liberty began their work. In a few seconds
the hall was filled with a yelling and howling mob,

202

MY STRUGGLE

above which numberless pint-pots flew like howitzci
Shells. Chair legs smashed, glasses shivered ; howls
and screams. It was a mad spectacle.

I stood up where I was and watched my active
young fellows doing their part.

The dance had hardly begun when my Storni-
troops, as they were named from that day forth,
attacked. Like wolves they rushed again and again in
parties of eight or ten on the enemy, and began gracU
ually to swcep them literally out of the hall. Aftrrl
fivc minutes I could see hardly one who was not Stream¬
ing with blood. I was beginning to know their quality ;
at their head my splendid Maurice, Hess, my present
private secretary, and many others who, though badly
hurt, continued to attack as long as their legs would
carry them.

A large crowd still remained in one corner of the
hall, still resisting stubbornly. Then suddenly two
pistol-shots were fired from the entrance in the direction
of the platform, and a wild din arose. One’s heart
almost rejoiced at such a revival of old war memories.
It was impossible to distinguish by whom the shots
were fired ; but at any rate I could see that my young
men renewed the attack with increased spirit, until
final ly the last disturbers were driven from the hall.

It had all taken about five and twenty minutes, by
the end of which we were masters of the Situation.
Hermann Esser, who was Chairman for the evening,
announced : “The meeting will continue ; let thr
Speaker proceed”. So I went on with my speech.

Just as the meeting was over, an excited policc
lieutenant suddenly rushed into the hall and roarecl,
waving his arms : “The meeting is closed !” I had
to laugh ; it was real official pomposity.

We learned much that evening, and our adver-
saries also did not forget the lesson they received.

Up tili the autumn of 1923 the Münchener Post
omitted all mention of the fists of the Proletariat.

CHAPTER VHI

TUE STRONG MAN IS STRONGEST WHEN ALONE

r^“^HE average citizen is pleased and reassured
1 when he hears that labour groups, by joining
together into a Trades Union, have discovered the
element which unites them in one body and rejected
that which divides them. Everyone is convinced that
such Union is an immense gain in strength and that the
once weak little groups are thereby converted sud¬
denly into a power. And yet this is for the most part
quite incorrect !

Some one man proclaims some true thing, appeals
for solution of some definite problem, marks out an
objective, and creates a Movement having as its aim

the realization of his intentions.

This is how a union or a Party is founded whose
Programme is aimed either at removing existing evils
or at attaining a definite condition of things at some

future period. ^ .

Once such ä Movement has come into life it can

thereby claim, in a way, a right of priority. ^ The
natural course should be that all those who desire to
struggle for the same objective as that ^lovement
should identify themselves with it and thus add to its
strength, in order to be better able to serve the Joint
aspiration.

There are two reasons why this is not how things
come to pass. The first reason may almost be
described as tragic ; the second is pitiable, and has its

foundation in human weakness.

I. Every great action in this world is, in general,

203

204

MY STRUGGLE

the fulfilmerit of a desire long present in miliions ol
human hearts, of a universal longing.

It is an essential characteristic of great questions of |
any period that thousands are at work on solving j
thein, and many imagine themselv^es proposed for ]
election by Destiny to that end, so that, in the free play ^
of forces, the stronger and bolder shall be finally vic-
torious and shall be entrusted with the task of solving
the Problem.

The tragic side of it is that these men struggie
towards the same objective by different roads, each
one genuinely believing in his own mission, considers
himself bouncl to go his own way, in total disregard of
the others.

Not infrequently the human race has owed its •
successes to the lessons learned from the misfortunes of
forrner attempts which have come to grief.

In history we see that the two paths which at one '
• time might possibly have solved the German problem
and whose chief representatives and Champions were ,
Austria and Prussia, Habsburg and Hohenzollern, '
ought to have lain together from the first ; all the rest,
according to their opinions, ought to have entrusted ]
their combined forces to the one party or the other.
Then the path of the Champion, who ended by being
the worthier, would have been the one to follow ; the '
Austrian method would never have led on to a German
Empire. i

Finally that Empire, strong in German unity, arose
out of what miliions of Germans feit in their hearts to
be the most terrible token of all of the conflict between
brothers ; for the German Imperial Crown was won
in reality on the battlefield of Koniggratz, and not in
the fights round Paris, as is commonly asserted. The
foündation of the German Empire was not the outcome
of any joint desire pursued by joint methods, but as
the outcome rather of a deliberate struggie (at times

MY STRUGGLE

205

hardly conscious) for hegemony, and out of that
struggie Prussia emerged victorious.

It is therefore not to be regretted if a number of
men set out to attain the same objective ; it is thus
that w^e recognize the strongest and swiftest and the
man who conquers.

The second reason is not merely tragic ; it is
pitiable. It arises from the said mixture of envy,
greed, ambition and readiness to steal, which appears,
alas ! so often combined in matters which interest
humanity.

The moment that a new Movement has started and
has adopted its own particular programme, men come
forward, claiming to fight for the same object. This
does not mean that they intend to take their places
honestly in the ranks of the Movement and so admit
its rights of priority, but that they mean to steal its
Programme and form a new party based on it.

The founding of a whole number of new groups,
Parties, etc., calling themselves “Nationalist”, in the
years 1918-19, came to pass with no merit to their
founders but as a natural development. By 1920 the
National Socialist German Workers’ Party had grad-
ually become crystallized as the victorious Party.
Nothing proves the genuine honesty of certain indi¬
vidual founders more wonderfully than the fact that
several of them decided with admirable promptitude
to sacrifice their own obviously less successful Move¬
ment, i.e., to dose it down and affiliate it uncondition-
ally to the stronger one.

This was the case especially with the protagonist of
the German Socialist Party in Nuremberg, Julius
Streicher. The two Parties were started with similar
aims but were otherwise quite independent of one
another. As soon, however, as Streicher was con-
vinced clearly and unquestionably of the superior
strength and stronger growth of the National Socialist

206

MY STRUGGLE

German Workers’ Party, he ceased working for the j
German Socialist Party and called upon his adherents ‘
to come into line with the National Socialist German
Workers’ Party, which had emerged victorious out of^
the contest, and to combine with it in continuing to
fight for the common cause. A decision highly com- 1
mendable but difficult for him as a man.

It ought never to be forgotten that no really great
achievement has ever been effected in this world by
Coalitions ; but they have always been due to the
triumph of one individual man. Successes achieved by
Coalition, owing to the nature of their source, contain
the seeds of future disintegration from their veiy Start,
to the extent, indeed, of forfeiting what has already
been attained. Great alterations of thought which
really revolutionize the world are inconceivable and
unrealizable except in the form of titanic struggles con-
ducted by single forces—never of enterprises conducted
by Coalitions.

The national State, therefore, will never be created
by the unstable volition of a nationalist union of
workers, but only by the adamantine will-power of a
single Movement, after that Movement has won through,
having defeated all others.

CHAPTER IX

TIIOUGHTS ON THE MEANING AND ORGANIZATION OF

THE SOGIALIST WORKERS

T he strength of the old State rested on three
pillars : the monarchical form of State, the
administrative bodies, and the Army. The Revolution
of 1918 swept the State form away, disorganized the
Army and delivered the administrative bodies over to
party corruption.

Thus, the props essential to the State’s authority
were cut away from under it. The latter depends
always on three elements, which lie essentially at the
foundation of all authority.

The first constant factor essential to authority is
populär Support. But authority, resting on this founda¬
tion alone, is utterly weak, unstable and wavering.
The second element of all authority is evidently power.
If populär Support and power are joined together and
can survive for a certain period in unison, authority
may then be found to rest on an even firmer foundation,
the authority of tradition. If once populär support,
power and the authority of tradition are united in one,
authority may be considered to be unshakable.

It is remarkable that the mass of the people—the
intermediate dass, as I wish to call them—never come
into prominence, except when the two extreme classes
meet in conflict, and that, if one of the extremes is vic¬
torious, they at all times readily submit themselves to
the Victor. If the best men achieve dominion, the
masses will follow them, if the worst come to the top,

■iO?

208

MY STRUGGLE

the masses at least make no attempt to resist theni ,
for the intermediate mass will never fight.

The spectacle at the end of the War was as foilows :
The great middle Stratum of the nation had, as in
duty bound, paid its toll of blood; the extreme section
of the best men had sacrificed thernselves almost to
man with typical heroism; the extreme of the worst,
protected by utterly foolish laws and by neglect ic
apply the Articles of War as they should have bern
applied, were kept alive also alrnost to a man.

This carefully preserved scum of our nation then
made the Revolution, and it was only able to do so
because the extreme section of the best was no longci
there to withstand it. It had all been killed in battlc.

Those Marxist freebooters could not depend foi
long on populär support alone for their authoriiy.
And yet the young Republic had need of it at aiiy
cost, for they were not willing, after a short period of
chaos, to be crushed down suddenly by a punitive forc<‘
assembled out of the last relics of the gocd element ln
our nation.

The element which harboured the revolutionary
idea and carried through the Revolution was neithci
able nor ready to call on the soldiers to protect it.
For what that element wanted was not to organize n
State, but to disorganize what existed; it suited their
instincts better. Their password was not Order and
Construction for the German Republic, but rather
Plundering of it.

There appeared then for the first time numbers of
young Germans ready in the Service, as they said, ol
peace and order, to draw on the soldier’s tunic again,
shoulder their rifles and put on their Steel helmets td
go against the destroyers of their homeland. They
assembled in bodies as volunteers, and set to work,
all the time hating the Revolution, to protect it and

MY STRUGGLE

209

thus to strengthen it in practice. They acted thus in
all good faith.

The real organizers of the Revolution, and its
actual wire-puller, the international Jew, had gauged
the Situation correctly. The time had not arrived for
thrusting the German nation into the blood-slough of
Bolshevism, as had happened in Russia. The question
was : What would the troops from the front do about
it ? Would the men in field-grey stand it ?

Düring those weeks the Revolution in Germany
was forced to give at least an appearance of extreme
moderation, if it was not to run the risk of being cut to
pieces in a moment by two or three German divisions.
For if even a single divisional commander had made
up his mind then and there, with his faithful division,
to drag down the red flag and stick the '‘councils” up
against a wall, or to break any resistance with Minen¬
werfer and hand-grenades, that division would not have
taken a month to grow into an army of six divisions.
The Jew wire-puller was terrified of this more than
anything.

The Revolution, however, was not made by the
forces of peace and order but by those of riot, robbery
and plunder. And the further development of the
Revolution was not in accord with the will of these
latter elements, nor for tactical reasons could its course
be explained or made palatable to them.

As Social Democracy gradually gained power, that
Movement dropped more and more the character of a
Revolution of brüte force.

Even before the War was over, and whilst the
Social Democratic Party, deriving its character from
the inertia of the masses, hung like a load of lead on
the neck of national defence, the radical-activist ele¬
ments were extracted from them and formed into new
and aggressive columns of attack. These were the

o

210

MY STRUGGLE

Independent Party and the Spartacus Union, thr
storm-battalions of revolutionary Marxisin. But whcn
the Army returning from the front appeared in the
light of a menacing sphinx, the national course of the.
Revolution had to be toned down. The main body
of the Social Democratic host took Charge of the con-
quered positions, and the Independents and Spartacists
were thrust on one side. This did not happen without
a struggle. The change had hardly taken place when
there appeared two camps side by side : the party of
peace and order and the group of bloody terror. Was
it not perfectly natural that the bourgeoisie should
betake themselves with colours flying into the camp of
peace and order ?

The result was that the enemies of the Republic
ceased fighting against it, as such, and helped to sub-
jugate those who were themselves also enemies of the
Republic, if for very different reasons. A further
result was that all danger that the adherents of the
old State might put up a fight against the new one
was averted for good.

If we consider how the Revolution was able—
quite apart from the faults in the old State, which were
the cause of it—to be successful when it came to the
point, we arrive at the following conclusion :

1. It was due to the deadening of our conceptions
of duty and obedience, and

2 . To the timorous passiveness of the Parties who
are supposed to maintain our State.

The first was at bottom due to our wholly non¬
national and purely State education. From this came
the misconception of means and ends. Consciousness
and fulfilment of duty, and obedience are not ends in
themselves—no more than that the State is an end in
itself, but they should all be means for making possible
and assuring the existence of a community, living a life
spiritually and physically similar.

MY STRUGGLE

211

The Revolution succeeded because our people, or
rather our governments, had lost all true feeling for
these conceptions, so that they had become weak,
formal and doctrinaire.

As regards the second point, the bourgeois Parties,
which may be termed the only political formations
existing under the old State, were convinced that they
ought to urge their views solely by intellectual methods,
since physical methods belonged to the State alone.
This was senseless at a period when a political adversary
had long discarded that point of view, and was declar-
ing with complete frankness that it meant, if it could,
to attain its political ends by force.

The political programme of the bourgeois Parties
rested on the past, in so far as they had not already
become reconciled to the new state of affairs ; their
aim, however, was to have a share, if possible, in the
new conditions. But their sole weapons were still as
before, words, and words only.

The only organizations which at that time had
strength and courage to oppose Marxism and the
masses which it excited were first of all the Free Corps,
later on the organizations for self-defence, and Einwoh¬
nerwehr, and finally the bonds of tradition.

The success of Marxism in days gone by was due
to the inter-play of political determination and ruth-
less force. What robbed Nationalist Germany of any
practical hope of shaping German development was
the lack of determined co-operation of ruthless force
with political Inspiration.

Whatever aspirations the “Nationalist” Parties might
possess, they were quite powerless to attain them by
fighting—certainly not in the streets.

The defence kssociations had all the force ; they
were masters of the streets, but they were without
political ideas or aims for which their power might
have been used with profit to Nationalist Germany.

212

MY STRUGGLE

The Jew it was who was brilliantly successful in
disseminating the conception of the ‘^unpolitical char-
acter” of the defence associations by means of his
Press, just as in politics he always cunningly empha-
sized the ‘‘purely intellectuaP^ character of the struggle.
To build upa new tradition the revolutionary forces had
no Chance. In fact the authority of tradition no longer
existed. The break-up of the old Empire, the destruc-
tion of the Symbols of its former grandeur rudely torc
down tradition, the result being a heavy blow to the
State’s authority.

Even the second pillar of the State’s authority,
power, was no longer present. In order to succeed at
all with the Revolution, they were forced to upset the
organized force and power of the State, i.e., the Army ;
nay, they were even obliged to use the tattered frag-
ments of the Army as a fighting force for the Revolution,

Authority could not possibly look for support in
those mutinous mobs of soldiers who regarded military
Service in the light of an eight-hour day. Thus, the
second element, the one security for authority, was
taken away, and Revolution actually enjoyed none
but the original one, populär support, wherewith to
build up its authority.

Every nation may be divided into three classes : at
one end the best men of the nation, good in the sense
of every virtue, and especially distinguished by their
courage and readiness for self-sacrifice ; at the other
end the worst dregs of humanity, bad in the sense that
they are self-seeking and depraved. In the middle,
between the two extremes, lie the third dass, the broad
Intermediate Stratum, in whom there is neither the
spirit for good nor for bad.

The lack of a new and great idea is at all times a
sign of lack of fighting force. The conviction that there
is a right to use weapons, even the most brutal, ever
goes hand in hand with fanatical belief that a new

MY STRUGGLE

213

and revolutionizing order of things must be victorious
in the world.

A Movement that fails to fight for such high ideals
and aims will never fight to the very last.

In producing a great new idea the French Revolu¬
tion discovered the secret of success. It was the same
with the Russian Revolution, and Fascism drew its
strength solely from the idea of submitting a whole
nation to a process of complete regeneration, with very
happy results for that nation.

When the Reichswehr was formed and Consolidated,
Marxism gradually obtained the force necessary for the
support of its authority, and began, as a logical con-
sequence, to discard the dangerous seeming Nationalist
defence associations, on the ground that they were
now superfluous.

The foundation of the National Socialist German
Workers’ Party was the first sign of any Movement whose
aim was not, like that of the bourgeois Parties, a mechan-
ical restoration of the past, but setting up of an organ-
ically nationalist State in place of the present senseless
State mechanism. True to its conviction of the paramount
importance of the new doctrine, the young Movement
naturally considers that no sacrifice is too great m
Order to attain that object.

It has happened time and again in the world’s
history that a period of terror based on a world-theory
has never been broken by formal State authority, but
always has given way to a new and different world-theory,
equally bold and determined. This may hurt the
feelings of Champions of States in official positions, but
that will not do away with the facts.

The State is being overrun by Marxism. Seeing
that it gave in unconditionally to Marxism on Novem¬
ber gth, 1918, it will not rise up all of a sudden to-morrow

214

MY STRUGGLE

to subdue it ; on the contrary, the bourgeois noodles,
vvho occupy Ministers’ seats, already babble of thr
necessity of not taking action against the workers,
showing that by “workers” they are thinking of
Marxism.

I have already described how, for the practical
purposes of our young Movement, a corps for the pro¬
tection of meetings was slowly formed, and that this
gradually assumed the character of a body of troops
tor keeping Order and was looking forward to taking
shape as an organizing body.

At that time this body was at first merely a guard
for meetings. Its earliest tasks were limited to making
it possible to hold meetings, which otherwise would
have been stopped dead by our opponents. These
men were trained merely for attack, not because, as
was asserted in foolish German Nationalist circles, their
ideal was the rubber life-preserver, but because they
realized that there was no chance for ideals if the
defender of them was clubbed with onc ; indeed, it
has occurred not infrequently in history that the greatest
leaders have come to a bad end by the hand of some
diminutive helot. They did not regard violence as an
aim, but they desired to protect those who proclaimed
the great ideal aim against being overpowered by
violence. They realized also that it was not their duty
to undertake protection of a State which was not pro-
tecting the nation, but that they were there to protect
the nation against those who threatened to destroy
nation and State.

The Storm Detachment, as they were called, is but
one section of the Movement, just as Propaganda, the
press, the scientific institute, etc., are simply sections of
the Party.

The idea underlying the formation of the Storm
Detachment was the intention, side by side with high
bodily training, to make it into an absolutely convinced

MY STRUGGLE

21 S

defender of the National Socialist idea and to perfect
its discipline. It was to have nothing in common with
any defence Organization, in the bourgeois sense, nor

yet with any secret organization.

My reason for guarding strictly at that time against
allowing the Storm Detachments of the National Socialist
German Workers’ Party to be raised as a so-called defence

association was as follows :

For every practical reason the defence of a nation
cannot be carried out by private defence associations,
unless backed up by all the forces of the State. It is utterly
out of the question to form organizations with any
military value for a definite purpose with so-called
“voluntary discipline”. The main support for getting
Orders carried out is lacking, namely, the power of
inflicting punishment. In the spring of
possible to raise ‘‘volunteer corps”, simply because
most of the men had fought at the front and had been
through the school of the old Army. That spirit is
entirely wanting in the ‘‘defence organizations” of

to-day.

Assuming that, in spite of all difficulties, some
association were to be successful in converting a
definite number of Germans into men, true in Senti¬
ment, and proficient in bodily and military training,
the result must of necessity be nil in a State whose
tendency is not to desire to create such a force—which,
in fact, detests the idea, since it is utterly out of har-
mony with the intimate aims of the leaders the
corrupters of the State.

This is the case to-day. Is it not ridiculous for a
government to be prepared to train some ten thousand
men in a hole-and-corner fashion, when a few years
earlier the State, having shamefully sacrificed eight and
a half millions of highly trained soldiers, not merely
had no further use for them, but, as a mark of gratitude
for their sacrifices, exposed them to universal execration ?

I

2i6 MY STRUGGLE

Is it expected that soldiers will be trained for a
regime which besmirched and spat upon its most glorious
soldiers, tore off their medals and badges, trod their
banners underfoot, and cast contempt on their achievc-
ments ? Or has this State regime ever taken a single
Step towards restoring the honour of the old Army, or
towards forcing those who destroyed and abused it to
answer for what they did ? Not one Step ! On the
contrary, these last can be seen occupying the highesl
posts under the State. And yet they said at Leipzig :
“Right goes with might.” Since, however, might is
to-day in the hands of the very men who originally
contrived the Revolution, and since that Revolution
represents the meanest betrayal of the country, the
most scoundrelly act in the whole of German history,
there can surely be no reason why might of that char-
acter should be increased by formation of a new young
army. All sensible reasoning is against it.

If the State, as it is to-day, adopted the System of
trained defence bands, it could never be applied to
the defence of national Interests outside the country,
but could only be used for protecting the nation’s
oppressors inside the country against the rage of the
betrayed and bartered nation, which might one day
rise in its wrath.

For this reason our Storm Detachments were not
allowed to have anything to do with military Organiza¬
tion. They were purely an instrument for protecting
and educating the National Socialist movement, and
their tasks lay in quite another direction from that of
any so-called defence association.

Neither did they represent a secret Organization.
The aims of secret organizations can only be unlawfui
ones.

What we needed then, and need now, was and is
not a hundred or two wrong-headed conspirators, but
a hundred thousand, and again a hundred thousand,
fanatical fighters for our world-theory. The work

m

MY STRUGGLE

217

must be done, not in secret conventicles, but by power-
ful massed strokes ; the road cannot be cleared for the
movement by dagger or poison or pistol, but by con-
quering the man in the Street. We have to destroy
Marxism, so that future control of the Street may be
in the hands of National Socialism—now, just as it will
be in the future.

There is another danger from secret organizations,
in that their members often fail completely to under-
stand the greatness of the task, and are apt to imagine
that the success of the national cause can be assured
all at once by means of a single murder. Such an idea
may find historical justification in cases where a
nation has been suffering under the tyranny of some
gifted oppressor.

Düring 1919 and 1920 there was a danger that
members of secret organizations, inspired by great
examples in history and carried away by the magnitude
of the nation’s misfortune, might attempt to take
vengeance on the corrupters of their country, under the
belief that thus they would put an end to the misery of
their nation. All .such attempts were purely folly,
because the Marxist victory was not due to the superior
genius of some outstanding individual leader, but to
the measureless incompetence and cowardlce of the
bourgeois world.

If, then, the Storm Detachrnent may be neither a
military organization nor a secret society, it must be
evolved under the following principles :

1. Its training must be carried out not on military
principles, but from the point of view of what is best
for the Party. Seeing that its members must be made
fit in body, störe must be set not on drill, but on
training for sports. I have always considered boxing
and ju-jitsu more important than mediocre training in
marksmanship.

2. In Order to prevent the Storm Detachrnent from

2I8

MY STRUGGLE

assuming any character of secrecy, not only must tlir Ih
uniform be universally recognized, but also the impor- .äjl
tance of its position must point out the road it musi 13
take so as to be of most use to the Movement, and that
road must be universally known. It must not work
by secret means. .£ 1

3. The formation and Organization of the Storni « 1
f^ctachment must not be a copy of the old Army as k I
regards uniform and equipment, but must be chosen so
as to be suitable to the tasks it has before it.

There were three events which turned out to be ol ’i
great importance for the later development of the t i
Storrn Detachment. .| *

1. The great general demonstration by all the • ' ä
patriotic societies in the late summer of 1922 on the |l.||
Konigsplatz in Munich against the Law for the Defenco ‘ 1
of the^ Republic. The procession of the Party, in which iJ
the I\ational Socialist movement took a part, was led

by six Munich Companies, followed by the sections ol'
the political Party. I myself had the honour of
addressing the multitude, which amounted to sixty
thousand people, as one of the Speakers. The arrange-
ments were a tremendous success, because, in spite of
all threats from the Reds, it was proved, for the first
time, that nationalist Munich was able to parade in
the Streets.

2. The expedition to Coburg in October, 1922.
Certain “nationalist” societies had decided to hold a

German Day” at Coburg. I was invited to take part,
with a recommendation to bring some of my friends
with me. I picked eight hundred men of the Storm
Detachment to go with me to the little town, which fl|
had become part of Bavaria, by special train. T

At the Station at Coburg we were met by a deputa- >
tion of the Organizers of the “German Day”, who t
announced that it had been * arranged**, at the Orders C*
of local trades unions, i.e., the Independent and Com- li'

MY STRUGGLE

219

munist Party, that we should not enter the town with
our flags flying and our band playing (we had a band
of forty-two musicians), and should not march with
closed ranks. I rejected these shameful conditions
forthwith, and did not fall to express to the gentlemen,
who had arranged this “Day”, my astonishment at their
negotiating with such people and coming to an agree-
ment with them, and declared that the Storm Detach-
ment would instantly march in Company formation into
the town with flags flying and the band playing.

In the Station yard we were received by a yelling
crowd, numbering many thousands. “Murderers ,
“bandits”, “robbers”, “criminals”, were the pet names
which those pattem founders of the German Republic
showered upon us. The young Storm Detachment
maintained perfect order. We marched to the court
of the Hofbrauhauskeller in the centre of the town.
In Order to prevent the crowd from following us, the
Police locked the gates of the court on us. As this
was intolerable, I demanded that the police should
open the gates. After long hesitation, they comphed.
We marched back by the road we had come to our
quarters, and there we had finally to face the crowd.
The representatives ot true Socialism, equality ^ and
brotherhood took to throwing stones. Our patiencc
was at an end, and we hit right and left for ten minutes,
and a quarter of an hour later there was no more red

to be seen in the streets.

There were serious collisions during the night.
Patrols of the Storm Detachment came upon National
Socialists, who had been attacked singly and were in a
deplorable condition. Short work was made with the
enemy. By the next morning the red terror, under
which Coburg had suflfered for years, was broken.

Qn the next day we marched on to the Square,
where it was announced that a demonstration of ten
thousand “workers” was to be held. Instead of ten
thousand, as announced, there were only a few hundred

220

MY STRUGGLE

present, who kept silent, on the whole, as we drew
near. Here and there bodies of Reds, who had come
in from outside and did not yet know us, tried to gei
up a quarrel ; but they quickly lost any wish to do
that It was becoming obvious that the population,
which had for long been miserably intimidated, was
now slowly waking up, and gaining courage to greei
US with shouts, and when we departed in the evenini'
spontaneous cheering broke out.

_ Our experiences at Coburg proved how essential ii
IS to introduce a regulär uniform for the Storm Detach-
ment, not only for the purpose of strengthening esprit
de corps, but also to avoid confusion and failure to
recogmze the men opposing it. Up to that time it
had worn merely the armlet, but now the tunic and
the well-known cap were added.

We learned also the importance of our going by a
regulär plan to all places in which the Red terror had
for many years prevented those who thought differently
from holdmg any meeting, of breaking down the Red
terror and re-establishing freedom of assemblage.

3- In March, 1923» an event occurred which forced

me to divert the course of the Movement and introduce
changes.

In the early part of that year the Ruhr was occupied
by the French, and this was subsequently of great

importance in the development of the Storm Detach-
ment.

The occupation of the Ruhr, which did not come
upon US as a surprise, gave good reason for hoping
that we should cease our cowardly policy of Sub¬
mission, and that the defence associations would now
have something definite to do. It was likely that the
torm Detachment as well, which contained several
thousand strong young men, would not be deprived ol
a share in this national service. Düring the spring
and Summer of 1923 its transformation into a fighting
mihtary Organization took place. To this were due.

MY STRUGGLE

221

in great part, the later developments during that year,
as far as they concerned our movement.

The events at the dose of 1923, though they appeared
disgusting at first sight, yet, when looked at from a
higher plane, were almost a necessity, since they put
an end at one blow to the conversion of the Storm
Detachment, which was now doing harm to the move¬
ment. At the same time, however, these events opened a
possibility of one reconstructing at the point at which
we had been forced to divert from the straight course.*

In 1925 the National Socialist German Workers’
Party was re-founded, and it will have to re-construct
and organize its Storm Detachment on the principles
mentioned in the beginning. It will have to return to
its original sound principles, and will have to regard it
as its highest duty to make the Storm Detachment into
an instrument for defence and strengthen the fight for
the world-theory of the Movement.

It must not allow the Storm Detachment to sink to
the level of a secret Organization ; it must rather take
Steps to make of it a guard of 100,000 men for the
National Socialist, and thus deeply nationalist, idea.

•The allusion is to the failure of the Hiihr Putsch in November, iqz^

CHAPTER X

1

THE SHAM OF FEDERALISM

I N the winter of 1919, and still more in the sprin^';

and Summer of 1920, the young Party was obligcd
to adopt an attitude towards a question which had
become important even during tbe War. In a previous
chapter I described shortly the signs, visible to myself,
of the menace of Germany’s collapse, with special
reference to the System of propaganda directed by thr
English, and also the French, towards widening the
old rift between the North and South of Germany.
It was in the spring of 1915 that the System of articlcs
and leaflets against Prussia, as being the sole cause ol
the War, first appeared. Up to 1918 it was developcd
and perfccted in a cunning and shameful mannci.
They counted on the lowest instincts of mankind and
began exciting the South German against the Nortli
German, and the fruits of the agitation soon made theii
appearance. The leaders, both in the Government
and in the Army (especially the Bavarian Army) may
be well reproached ; they cannot escape blame foi
failing, with criminal blindness and laxity, to takc
action against it with proper determination. Nothiti^;
was done ! On the contrary, some of them seemed to
see it with no great displeasure, and were perhajis
unintelligent enough to imagine that such propaganda
might not only add a bolt in the unification of tla
German nation, but might even automatically strengthen
the forces of Federation. Hardly ever in history ha.s
such wicked neglect received heavier punishment. Tlir
enfeeblement which Prussia sufTcred by it attacked ihr
whole of Germany. It hastened the collapse, whicli

232

MY STRUGGLE

223

i’uined not Germany alone, but mach more certaimy

the individual States themselves.

In the town, in which the artificially excited hatred
against Prussia raged most violently, the revolt against
the reigning House was the Start of the Revolution.

It would be wrong to imagine that the enemy
Propaganda was alone responsible for the anti-Prussian
feeling. The unbelievable methods of our war organizers,
who gathered—and swindled—the whole Empire into
an absolutely mad System of centralization in Berlin,
was a main cause of that anti-Prussian feeling.

The Jew was far too cunning not to realize then
that the infamous campaign of plunder, which he was
organizing against the German nation under the cloak
of the War societies, was bound to arouse Opposition.
As long as it did not spring at his own throat he had
no cause to be afraid. Thus it occurred to bim that
there could be no better method of averting a rising of
the masses, driven to desperation and exasperation,
than to let their rage flame up and spend itself in some

other direction.

Then came the Revolution.

The international Jew, Kurt Eisner, started to play
Bavaria off against Prussia. In deliberately aiming the
revolutionary movement in Bavaria against the rest of
the Reich, he was not acting in the least from the point
of view of Bavaria, but as one commissioned by Jewry
to do so. Pie exploited the cxisting instincts and dis-
likes of the Bavarian people, in Order by their mcans
to dismcmber Germany the more easily. The Reich,
once laid in ruins, would have fallen an easy prcy to
Bolshevism.

The art of the Bolshevist agitators, in representing
the advance of the contingents of liberation to put an
end to the Communistic Republics as a victory
of Prussian militarism over the anti-militarist and

224

MY STRUGGLE

anti-Prussian elements, bore rieh fruits. Whereas, at tli.
time of the Elections for the Bavarian Legisla(iv<
Assembly, Kurt Eisner had not 10,000 followers in
Munich and the Communist Party had under 3,00(1,
after the collapse of the Communistic Republic (Ik
two Parties fused together and numbered nearly ioo,üoo

I think that never in my life did I Start a nion
unpopulär work than I did in my stand against (Ik
anti-Prussian incitement. In Munich, during the senil
Communistic period, the first mass meetings took place, .11
which hatred against the rest of Germany, especially
Prussia, was lashed to such a heat of frenzy that if .1
North German attended a meeting it was at the lisk
of his life. Those demonstrations usually ended wiili
wild shouts of “Away from Prussia”, “Down widi
Prussia”, “War against Prussia” ; a sentiment summed
up in the German Reichstag by a brilliant defender ol
Bavaria’s sovereign intercsts in the battle-cry : “Rathci’
die as a Bavarian than rot as a Prussian !”

The fight which I had undertaken, at first by
myself and afterward with the Support of my war
comrades, was now carried on almost, I might say, as
a sacred duty by the young Movement. I am proud
to be able to say to-day that we—depending almosi
exclusively on our adherents in Bavaria—were respon-
sible for putting an end, slowly but surely, to thai
combination of folly and treason.

It is, of course, obvious that the agitation against
Prussia had nothing to do with Federalism. “Federative
activities” are most inappropriate when their object is
to break up or dismember another Confederation.
For a genuine Federalist, for whom Bismarck’s con-
ception of the Empire is not an empty phrase, could
not in the same breath desire to cut off portions of tlic
Prussian State, which was created and perfected bv
Bismarck, nor could he publicly Support such Separatist

MY STRUGGLE

225

aspirations. It is the more unbelievable, since the
battle waged by these so-called Federalists was against
the element in Prussia which can least be considered
as being connected with the November democracy.
For their slanders and attacks were not directed against
the fathers of the Weimar Constitution, who consisted
mostly of South Germans and Jews, but against the
representatives of the old Conservative Prussia, the very
antipodes of the Weimar Constitution. We need feel
no astonishment that they were especially careful not
to encroach upon the Jews ; but this, perhaps, gives
the key for solving the whole riddle. The Jew’s object
was to incite the “National” elements in Germany
against each other—to set Conservative Bavaria against
Conservative Prussia. And he was successful.

In the winter of 1918 Anti-semitism began to take
root throughout Germany. The Jew returned to his
old methods. With amazing promptitude he hurled
the brand of contention into the populär Movement
and started a fresh rift. In casting up the Ultramontane
question and in the contentions arising out of it lay,
as things then were, the sole possibility of occupying
populär attention with other problems, so as to stem
the attack concentrated on Jewry. The men who
infected our nation with this question can never repair
the evil they committed against it. The Jew has cer-
tainly succeeded in his aim 5 he is delighted at seeing
Gatholics and Protestants fighting together ; the eneiny
of Aryan hurnanity and of all Christendom laughs in

his sleeve.

The two Christian Churches are lookirig on this
pollution and destruction of a noble and unique exist-
ence, granted by God’s grace to this earth, with indif¬
ferent eyes. For the world s future, however, the
importance of it all is not whether the Protestants, but
rather whether the Aryan man, holds his own or dies
out. And yet to-day the two confessions are fighting.

!■

226

MY STRUGGLE

not against tlie destroyer of the Aryan, but they ar<
trying to annihilate each other.

In Germany it is not permissible to promote .1
struggle against Ultramontanism or Clericalism, as ii
might be in purely Catholic countries, for the Pro
testants would certainly take a hand in it. The defencc
which Catholics in other countries would put up against
attacks, political in character, on their religious leadeis
would, in Germany, at once assume the form of an
attack by Protestantism against Gatholieism.

For the rest the facts speak for themselves. Tlic
men who in 1924 suddenly discovered that the main
mission of the Nationalist movement was a struggle
. against “Ultramontanism”, failed to break Ultra¬
montanism down, but they did succeed in Split tin g tlie
Nationalist movement. I must add my warning, in
case some immature brain in the Nationalist
movement should imagine that it can do what a Bis^
marck was unable to do. It will be the main duty ol'
those who lead the National Socialist movement tn
oppose absolutely any attempt to offer the Services ol
their movement for any such struggle, and to expcl
from its ranks on the spot those who conduct Propa¬
ganda for that objecüve. As a matter of fact, we hail
continuous success in this throughout the autumn ol
1923. Fervent Protestants could stand side by sidc
with fervent Gatholics in our ranks without the slightesi
qualms of conscience as regards their religious con-
victions.

The States of the American Republic did not makc
the Union, but it was the Union which created most ol
the so-called States. The very comprehensive rights
granted to the various territories express not only tlic
essential character of that Union of States, but are in
harmony with the vastness of the area which they
cover, almost attaining to the dimensions of a contineni.

MY STRUGGLE

227

Thus, in speaking of the States of the American Union,
one cannot refer to them as having State sovereignty,
but as enjoying rights, or, better perhaps, Privileges,
determined and guaranteecl by the Constitution.

In Germany, however, the individual States were
originally sovereign States, and the Empire was formed
out of them. But the formation of the Empire did
not take place by reason of the free will and equal
co-operation of the individual States, but because one
State, Prussia, achieved hegemony over the others.
The great difference in size of territory between the
German States by itself prevents any comparison with
the American Union. Moreover, the difference in size
between the smallest of them and the larger, or rather
the largest of them, demonstrates the inequality of
achievement and of the share in founding the Empire
and in forming the confederation of States. It cannot
be maintained that most of the States ever really
enjoyed genuine sovereignty’L

The rights of sovereignty which the States renounced
in Order to make the Empire possible were given up in
a very small measure of their own free will. In most
cases they were either non-existent, or they had simpiy
been lost under the pressure of Prussia’s superior
strength. The principle followed by Bismarck was not
to give to the State merely what had been taken away
from the smaller States, but to demand from the States
what the Empire absolutely required. But it is quite
wrong to ascribe the decision of Bismarck’s to any
conviction on his part that the State was thus acquiring
all the rights of sovereignty which it would require for
all time ; on the contrary, he meant to leave over for
the future what would have been hard to attain at the
moment. And the sovereignty of the Reich has, in
actual fact, continuously increased at the expense of
the individual States. The passing of time achieved
what Bismarck hoped it would achieve.

The German collapse and the destruction of the

228

MY STRUGGLE

monarchical State-form necessarily hastened thesc
developments.

Fl

The same cause struck a hard blow at the federativc
character of the Reich ; a harder blow still was struck i
by the acceptation of the obligations under the ‘Teace” i
Treaty. I

It was both natural and obvious that the countries
lost Control of their finances and had to renounce it to j
the Reich, from the moment when the Reich, having '
lost the War, submitted to financial obligations, which j
were nevcr considered as being covered by contributions ^
from the individual States. The further decision, ]
which led to the Reich taking over the railways and
postal Services, was a necessary and progressive Step in ]
the gradual enslavement of our nation under the »
Peace Treaty.

Bismark’s Empire was free and unbound. It was ]
not weighed down by wholly unproductive financial
obligations, such as the present Dawes-Germany has to^
carry on her back. Its expenditure was confined to a j
few absolutely necessary items of domestic importance.
It was, therefore, well able to do without financial
supremacy and to live on the money contributed by
the provinces ; and naturally the fact that the States
retained their rights of sovereignty and had com- ;
paratively little to pay to the Empire, contributed to
their satisfaction in being members of the Empire.
But it is both incorrect and dishonest to wish to make
Propaganda with the assertion that whatever dissatis-
faction there existed was attributable solely to the
financial bondage suffered by the States at the hands
of the Empire. No, this was truly not the case. The
wane of joy in thought of the Empire should not be
attributed to loss of sovereign rights, but it is rather the
result of the miserable way in which the German
nation was then represented by its Reich.

MY STRUGGLE

229

Thus the Reich to-day is forced for reasons of self-
preservation to curtail more and inore the sovereign
rights of the individual countries, not only from ^the
general material standpoint, but on principle also, kor,
seeing that it is draining the last drops of the^ blood of
its citizens by its policy of financial squeezing, it is
forced to withdraw the last of their rights, unless it is
prepared to see the general discontent flame up into

rebellion.

We National Socialists have therefore to admit the
following basic principle :

A powerful National Reich, guarding and protecting
the interests of its citizens abroad in the widest sense,
is able to offer liberty at home ; then it need have no
anxiety for the solidity of the State. On the other
hand, a powerful National government inay take
responsibility for large incursions on the liberty of
individuals as well as of the States without risk of
weakening the Empire idea, if only each citizen recog-
nizes that such measures are measures aimed at making
his nation great.

It is a fact that all the States in the world are
moving in the direction of unification in their domestic
policy, and Germany will not be out of the running

in this respect.

However natural a certain measure of unifi¬
cation, especially in the domain of Communications,
may appear to be, it is none the less the duty of the
National Socialists to bring strong Opposition against
such a development in the Reich to-day, given that the
sole object of these measures is to cover and make
possible a disastrous foreign policy. For the very
reason that the Reich of to-day proposes to bring under
itself the railways, postal Services, finances, etc., for
reasons which are not of high national policy, but in
Order to have in its hands the means and pledges for

230

MY STRUGGLE

limitless fulfilment of obligations, we National Socialists
must take every step that appears calculated to block
and, if possible, prevent such a policy.

Another reason for opposing centralization of this
kind is that the Jewish-democratic Reich, which has
become a real curse to the German nation, is seeking
to render impotent the objections raised by the States,
which are not so far imbued with the spirit of the age,
by crushing them to the point of becoming totally
unimportant.

Our Standpoint has always to be that of high
national policy and must never be narrow or partic-
ularist.

This last observation is necessary lest our adherents
should come to imagine that we National Socialists
would think of denying that the Reich has a right to
assume a higher sovereignty than that of the individual
States. There neither should nor could be any question
as to that right. Since for us the State in itself is but a
form, whereas the essential is that which it includes,
namely the nation, the people,—it is clear that every-
thing eise must be subordinated to the nation’s Interests ;
and, in particular, we cannot pcrmit any single State
within the nation and the Reich (which represents the
nation) to enjoy independent political sovereignty as a
State. The enormity of allowing States of the Con-
federation to maintain Legations abroad must, and
will, be put a stop to. As long as that continues to be
possible we havc no right to wonder that foreigners
continue to doubt the stability of the framework of our
Reich, and take their measures accordingly.

The importance of individual States will in future
be more on the cultural side. The monarch who did
most for the reputation of Bavaria was no obstinate
particularist with anti-German sentiments, but one
who was as much in sympathy with a greater Gerrnany
as he was with art—Ludwig I.

MY STRUGGLE

231

The iA.rmy must be kept strictly apart from all
individual State influences. The coming National
Socialist State must not slip into the mistake of the past
in forcing the Army to undertake a task which is not
and never ought to be proper to it. The German
.\rmy is not there for the purpose of proving a school
for maintaining particularisms, but rather for
teaching all Germans to understand and get on with
each other. All that tends to divisions in the nation’s
life must be converted by the Army into a uniting
influence. It must lift each youth above the narrow
horizon of his own little country and set him in his
place within the German nation. He must learn to
look on the frontiers not of his home, but of his Father-
land ; for it is those which he may have to protect one
day. It is folly, therefore, to let the young German
stay in his home, but a good thing to show Gerrnany
to him during the time of his military Service. This is
all the more essential to-day, since young Germans do
not travel and so widen their horizon as once they used
to.

The doctrines of National Socialism are not meant
to serve the political Interests of single States of the
Gonfederation, but to lead the German nation. They
must determine the life of a whole nation and shape it
afresh ; they must, therefore, peremptorily claim^ the
right to overstep boundaries, drawn according to political
developments which we have rejected.

CHAPTER XI

PROPAGANDA AND ORGANIZATION

P ropaganda must msh on far in advance of \
Organization, and win over the human material ]
on which Organization is to work. I have always been '
an enemy of hasty and pedantic Organization, for it is \
apt to lead to a dead mechanical result. ]

For this reason it is best to let an idea be broadcast
from a ccntre by means of propaganda for a period, '
and then to search carefully tlirough and examine for i
leaders among the human beings which has been ^
assembled. It will often happen that men who do '
not show obvious capabilities at the Start turn out to
be born leaders. i

It is totally wrong to imagine that abundance of
theoretic knowledge is necessarily a characteristic proof
of the qualities and energy necessary for leadership. ■
The contrary is frequently the case.

A great theorist is seldom a great leader. An
agitator is far more likely to possess those qualities—
which will be unwelcome news to those whose work on
a question is merely scientific. An agitator who is
capable of communicating an idea to the masses has
to be a psychologist, even though he be but a dema-
gogue. Fle will always be better as a leader than the
retiring theorist who knows nothing about men. For
leadership means ability to move masses of men. The
talent for producing ideas has nothing in common with
capacity for leadership. But the union of theorist, ^
Organizer and leader in one man is the rarest pheno-
menon on this earth ; therein consists greatness.

232

MY STRUGGLE

233

I have al ready described the attendon I gave to
Propaganda in the earlier days of the Movement. Its
function was to inociilate a small nucleus of men with
the new doctrine, so as to shape the material ^ out of
which the first elements of an Organization might be
formed later on. In the process the aims of Propa¬
ganda far exceeded those of organization.

The work which propaganda has to do is to con-
tinue to win adherents to the idea, whilst the whole-
hearted preoccupation of organization must be to make
the best of the adherents into active members of the
Party. There is no need for propaganda to worry
itself over the value of eveiy single one of its scholars as
regards efficiency, capacity, intellect or character,
whereas it is the task of organization to select carefully
out of the mass any that may really conduce to the

triumph of the movement.

The first task of propaganda is to win men for the

Corning organization ; that of organization is to get
men for carrying on propaganda. The second task of
Propaganda is to upset existing conditions by means of
the new doctrine, that of organization is to fight for
power, in order through it to secure final success for
the doctrine.

One of the main tasks of organization is to see that
no sign of disunion creeps into the membership of the
Movement to cause divisions, and so lead to weakening
of the work of the Movement ; also that the spirit of
attack does not die down, but is continually renewed
and lortified. To this end the membership should not
be multiplied indefinitely ; for since energy and bold-
ness only exist in a portion of mankind, a Movement
whose organization sets no limits to it would of neces-

sity one day become weak.

It is therefore essential, if only for purposes of self-
preservation, that as long as it is maintaining its success
a movement shall stop adding to its membership, and
shall thenceforward exercise the greatest caution, and

234

MY STRUGGLE

only after thorough examination, consider increasing ih
Organization. Only by this means will it keep iIk
kernel of the Movement fresh and healthy. It must sec
to it that this kernel continues to have sole control ol
the movement, i.e., decides on the Propaganda whirli
is to lead to universal recognition, and, being in pos
sion of all power, carries on the operations necessary foi
the practical realization of its ideals.

As Controller of Propaganda for the Party I was
careful not merely to prepare the ground for the futurc
greatness of the Movement, but I worked on very
radical principles so that only the best material was
introduced into the Organization. For the more radical
and exciting my propaganda was, the more did ii
frighten weak and wavering characters away, and
prevented their penetrating into the inner kernel ol'
our Organization. And this was all to the good.

Up to the middle of 1921 this Creative activity suf-
ficed, and did nothing but good to the Movemenl.
But in the summer of that year certain events made it
obvious that the Organization was failing to keep pacc
with the Propaganda, the success of which was gradually
appearing more evident.

In the years 1920-21 the Movement had a com-
mittee in control of it, elected by the members in
assembly. This committee, comically enough, embodied
the very principle against which the Movement was
most keenly fighting, namely, parliamentarianism.

I refused to countenance such folly, and after a very
short time I ceased to attend the meetings of the com¬
mittee. I made my propaganda for myself, and that
was an end of it; I refused to allow any ignoramus to
talk me into any other course. Similarly I refrained
from interfering with the others in their departments.

As soon as the new rules were adopted and I was
established as Chairman of the Party, thus acquiring
the necessary authority and the rights accompanying

m ii> ii im nt läi 'T -tTi-r - it -ff-it“ nt'

MY STRUGGLE

235

it, all such folly came to an immediate end. Decisions
by Committee were replaced by the principle of absolute
responsibility. The Chairman is responsible for entire
control of the Movement.

This principle gradually became recognized inside
the Movement as the natural one, at least as far as
control of the Party was concerned.

The best way to make Committees innocuous, which
did nothing or merely brewed up unpractical recom-
mendations, was to set them to do some real work.
It made one laugh to sce how the members would
silently fade away, and suddenly were nowhere to be
found ! It reminded me of our great Institution of the
same kind, the Reichstag. How quickly that would
all blow away if they were put to some real work,
instead of just talk, especially if each member was
made personally responsible for any work which he did.

In December, 1920, we acquired the Völkische!
Beobachter. This paper, which, as its name suggests,
was meant generally for populär consumption, was to
become the organ of the National Socialist German
■yVorkers’ Party. At first it appeared twice weekly, but at
the beginning of 1923 it became a daily paper, and atthe
end of August it started appearing in its later well-
known large form.

The Völkischer Beobachter was a so-called “populär”
organ with all the advantages and, still more, the faults
and weaknesses attaching to populär institutions.
Excellent though its contents were, its management was
impossible as a business proposition. The underlying
idea was that it ought to be maintained by populär
subscription ; it was not realized that it would have
to make its way in competition with the rest, and that
it would be indecent to expect the subscription of good
patriots to cover mistakes and negligence on the business
side of an enterprise.

T took great pains at the time to alter diese conditions

236

MY STRUGGLE

the danger of which I soon recognized. In igi.j,
in the War, I made the acquaintance of Max Amaini,
who is now the general business Director of the Party.

In the Summer of 1921 I applied to my old comradc
in the regiment, whom I met by chance one day, and
asked him to become business manager for the Move¬
ment. After long hestitation—for he already had :i
good Position with prospects—he consented, but only
on one condition, that he should not be at the mercy
of incompetent committees ; he must have to answer
to one single master, and one only.

What actually happened was that some men were
taken on to the staff of the paper who had formerly
been attached to the Bavarian People’s Party, but their
Work showed that they had excellent qualifications.
The result of this experiment was eminentlv successful.

It was owing to this honest and frank recognition of a
man’s real qualifications that the Movement captured
the hearts of its employees, more swiftly and surelyfe
than had been the case ever before. Later on thcv®
became, and remained, good National Socialists, noi y
in Word alone, and they proved it by the solid, steady ■
and conscientious work which they performed in the H
Service of the new Movement. I

In the course of two years I brought my views mor<*
and more into Operation, and to-day, as far as the
leadership-in-chief is concerned, they hold their ground
as the most natural solution.

The obvious success of this System was shown on
November gth, 1923. Four years previously, when I
entered the Movement, there was not even a rubbci
stamp. On November gth, 1923, the Party was broken
up, and its property confiscated. The total suni
fetched by all objects of any value and by the paper
amounted to over 170,000 gold-marks.

CHAPTER XII

THE TRADE UNION QUESTION

rapid growth of the Movement obliged us^ in
X 1922 to adopt an attitude towards a question

which was then not altogether clear.

In our efforts to study the quiekest and easiest
methods by which the Movement might penetrate into
the heart of the masses, we were continually met by
the objection that the worker could never completely
attach himself to us as long as his professional and
economic interests were looked after by men holding
other opinions than ours and his political Organization

was in their hands.

Previously I have written on the nature and aims
and also the necessity of Trades Unions. I gave it as
my opinion that unless, by means of State measures
(which usually lead to nothing) or by a new ideal of
education, the attitude of the employer towards the
worker underwent a change, the latter would have no
course but to undertake the defence of his own interests
himself, by appealing to his equal rights as a contracting
party in economic life. I went on to say that such defensive
action impinged on the entire national community if,
by reason of it. social injustices, involving serious
injury to the life of the community, could not be pre-
vented. I said, moreover, that the necessity of Trades
Unions must be taken for granted so long as the
employers included amongst their niimbers men who
had of themselves no feeling for social Obligation, nor
even for the most elementary rights of humanity.

In the present state of afiairs, I am convinced that

2^7

1

238 MY STRUGGLE j

the Trades Unions cannot possibly be dispensed wiih. l
In fact, they are among the most important institutions j
in the economic life of the nation. j

The National Socialist movement, which aims ai
the National Socialist State for the People, may enter-!
tain no doubts that every future Institution of that:
State must be rooted in the Movement itself. It is the
greatest of errors to imagine that possession of power.
by itself will allow any definite reorganization to bei
accomplished, starting from nothing, without the help!
of a Staff of men who have been trained beforehand in '
the Spirit of the enterprise. Here, also, the principlc
holds good that the spirit is always more important]
than the form, which can be created very speedily. ^

Thus no one could propose suddenly dragging out '
of his portfolio the draft of a new Constitution, and
expect to be able to “introduce” it by an edict from,
above. It might be tried, but the result would not!
survive ; almost certainly it would be a still-born|
infant. I am reminded of the origin of the Weimari
Constitution, and the attempt to palm off a new Con-
.stitution and a new flag on the German nation, neitherj
of them having any Connection with anything known l
to our nation during the last half Century. ,

The National Socialist State must avoid all such ]
experiments ; it must grow out of an Organization ]
wbich has already long been working. Hence the'
National Socialist movement must recognize the neces- <
sity of possessing a Trades Union Organization of its ■.
own. j

What must be the nature of a National Socialist j
Trades Union ? What is our task, and what are its;
aims ?

It is not an instrument of dass war, but one for
defence and representation of the workers. The National
Socialist State knows no classes, but, in a political sense.

MY STRUGGLE

239

only citizens with absolutely equal rights and similarly
equal obligations, and, side by side with them, subjects
absolutely without rights in the political sense.

The primary object of the Trades Union System is
not to fight in any war between classes, but Marxism
forged it into an instrument for its own dass war.
Marxism created the economic weapon, which the
international Jew employs for destroying the economic
basis of free and independent national States, for
ruining their national industry and trade ; its object
being to make free nations the slaves of the world
finance of Jewry, which knows no State boundaries.

In the hands of the National Socialist Trades Union
the strike is not an instrument for ruining the nation’s
production, but for increasing it and causing it to flow,
by fighting against all the faults, which, by their unsocial
character, hinder efficiency in business and in the life
of the whole nation.

The National Socialist worker must be aware that
the nation’s prosperity means material happiness to
himself.

The National Socialist employer must be aware
that happiness and contentment for his workers is an
essential for the existence and development of his own
great business enterprise.

It is senseless to have a National Socialist Trades
Union side by side with other Trades Unions. For il
must be deeply convinced of the universality of its task
and of the resulting Obligation not to other institutions
with similar and perhaps hostile aims, and be ready to
proclaim its own essential individuality. There can be
no compromising with cognate aspirations ; its absolute
right to stand alone must be maintained.

There were, and are still, many arguments against
founding Trades Unions of our own.

240

MY STRUGGLE

I have always refused to consider experimenh
which were bound to fail from the Start. I should
have considered it a crime to take from the worker .1
Proportion of his hard-earned wages to pay for an
institution which I was not thoroughly convinced would
be of use to its members.

Our action in 1922 was based on these opinioiis.
Others apparently knew better, and started Tradci,
Unions. But it was not long before they disappeared.
So that in the end they were in the same position as
ourselves. The difference was that we had betraycd
neither ourselves nor others.

CHAPTER XIII

GERMAN POLICY OF ALLIANCES AFTER THE WAR

'^I^IIE fecklessness of the Reich in the domain of
X foreign policy, and its failure to follow the right
principles in its policy of alliances, was not only con-
tinued after the Revolution, but continued in a worse
form. For if before the War confusion of ideas in
politics may be taken as the first cause of the bad
State leadership in foreign affairs, after the War, on
the other hand, it was honest intention that was lacking.
It was obvious that the Party which had achieved its
destructive aims by means of the Revolution would
not be interested in a policy of alliances, the object of
which was reconstruction of the free German State.

As long as the National Socialist Germaii Workers’
Party was but a small and little-known society, problems
of foreign policy would seem of inferior importance in the
eyes of many of our adherents. And, indeed, the one
essential preliminary to a struggle for freedom against
the foreigner is removal of the causes of our collapse,
and destruction of those who are profiting by it.

But from the moment that the small and insig-
nificant society widened its sphere of operations, and
attained the importance of a great association, it quickly
became necessary to take note of the developments in
foreign politics. We had to decide on principles,
which should not only not be in contradiction of our
fundamental views, but should actually be an expres-
sion of them.

The essential and basic idea which is ever before
US in considering this question is that foreign policy
is but a means to an end. But the end is exclusivcly

Q

241

242

MY STRUGGLE

cncouragement of our own nationality. No Suggestion
in foreign politics may be prompted by any considera-
tion other than the following : Will it help our nation
now or in future, or will it injure it ?

We have to consider, moreover, that the question
of recovering territories which a nation and Stale
have lost is always first and foremost one of recoveriii},'
political power and independence for the Mothei
country, also that in such a case the interests of lost
territories must be ruthlessly ignored as against that ol
regaining the Mother country’s freedom. For the
liberation of oppressed and cut-off splinters of a race
or of the provinces of an Empire is not effected by
reason of any desire of the oppressed population or ol
a Protest by those who remain, but by whatever means
of power is still possessed by the remainder of the
Fatherland, which was once common to all.

It is not by flaming protests that oppressed lands
are brought back into the embrace of a common Reich,
but by a power—or combination of powers.

It is the task of the leaders of a nation, in their
domestic policy, to forgc that power ; in their foreign
policy they must see that the forging is done, and they
must seek men to wield the weapon.

In the early chapters of Mein Kampf I described the
half-heartedness of our policy of alliances before the
War. Instead of a sound territorial policy insidc
Europe, they preferred one of colonies and trade. This
was the more ill-conceived, since they hoped in vain
thus to escape having to make the decision by arms.
The result of this attempt was that, whilst hoping to
sit upon all the stools, they feil down, as usually happens,
between them all, and the World War was the final
retribution imposed on the Empire for its bad leadership.
The right way should have been to strengthen the
Empire’s power on the Continent by winning fresh
territory in Europe.

MY STRUGGLE

243

But since the fathers of the folly of our democratic
Parliament refused to consider any regulär scheme of
preparation of defence, any plan for acquiring lands in
Europe was thrown over, and, by their preference for
a policy of colonies and trade, they sacrificed the (then
possible) alliance with England ; at the same time
they neglected to seek support from Russia—^the logical
course. Finally they stumbled into the W^orld War,
deserted by all but the ill-omened Habsburg Dynasty.

The historic tendency of British diplomacy, the sole
counterpart of which in Gerinany was the tradition of
the Prussian Army, was, ever since the example set by
Queen Elizabeth, directed deliberately towards pre-
venting by every possible means the rise of any European
Power beyond the general Standard of greatness, and
breaking it by a militai^ attack, if necessary. The
means employed by Great Britain to that end varied
according to the Situation and the task imposed ; but
the will and determination were always the same.
The political independence of the former North
American colonies led, as time went on, to mighty
efforts to obtain a certainty of support on the continent
of Europe. Thus, after Spain and the Netherlands had
sunk from being Great Powers, the forces of the British
State were concentrated against the rising power of
France, until finally, with the fall of Napoleon, the
fear of the hegemony of the military power, which was
the most dangerous of all to England, appeared to be
broken for good and all.

The change of direction of British statesmanship
against Germany was a slow process, because Germany,
owing to her lack of national unity, presented no visible
menace to England.

By 1870-71, however, England had already adopted
her new attitude. Her hesitations, occasioned by
America’s importance in world economics, as well as
by the development of Russia as a Power, were unfor-

244

MY STRUGGLE

tunately not turned to advantage by Germany, wifli
the result that the historic tendency of British statcs-
manship became more and more firmly established.

Britain regarded Germany as the Power whosc
ascendancy in trade—and therefore in world politics
as a consequence of her enormous industrialization, was
becoming a very serious menace. The conquest of the
world by “peaceful penetration”, which our statesmen
thought to be the last word in wisdom, was selected by
British politicians as their basis for organizing resist-
ance. The fact that this resistance assumed the form
of a fully organized attack was entirely consistent in
character with statesmanship whose aim was not main-
tenance of an already more than questionable world
peace, but establishment of Britis’h world domination.
The fact that England employed, as her allies, all
States which could be of use in a military sense was
equally consistent with her traditional foresight in,
estimating her opponents’ strength, as well as with her
knowledge of her own weak points at any given moment;^
This is—from the British point of view—not termed
“unscrupulousness”, since to organize a war so com-'
pletely is not to be judged by heroic Standards, but by ^
their suitableness to the occasion. It is the task of
diplomacy to see to it that a nation does not go under
heroically, but is maintained by practical means. Then
every road which leads to that is the right one, and
not to follow it is obviously a crime and flagrant neglect
of duty,

When Germany turned revolutionary all fear of the
threat of world domination by Germany was over, as
far as it concerned British statesmanship. It was not
to British interest that Germany should be entirely
obliterated from the map of Europe. On the contrary,
the fearful collapse of November, 1918, put British
diplomacy face to face with a new Situation, which
was at once discovered to be possible : Germany

tidtidiia iMilif r l*. Hai ifti «tmit

MY STRUGGLE

245

destroyed, and France the strongest political Power on
the Continent of Europe. The wiping out of Germany
as a Power on the Continent would merely bring profit
to England’s enemies. And yet between November,
19185 and the summer of 1919 British diplomacy was
not in a position to alter its attitude, since it had
exploited the forces of sentiment in the public during
the long War more fully than ever before.

Moreover, in order to prevent the power of France
from becoming too great, the only policy possible to
England was participation in France’s lust for aggres-
sion. In fact, England had failed to achieve what she
was aiming at when she went to war. The rise of a
European Power above and beyond the ratio of strength
in the Continental State System of Europe had not
been prevented ; it had, in fact, been solidly established.

France’s position to-day is unique. She is the first
Power, in a military sense, with no serious rival on the
Continent; her frontiers are practically safe against
Italy and Spain ; she is protected against Germany by
her army, which is the most powerful in the world,
and by the Fatherland’s powerlessness, her long Stretch
of coast is safe against attack by reason of her nayy,
which is growing stronger than that of the British
Empire.

Great Britain’s permanent desire is to maintain a
certain balance of power between the States of Europe
amongst themselves, since that appears to be a neces-
sary condition for British influence in the world.

France’s permanent desire was to prevent Germany
from becoming a solid Power, to maintain a System of
small States in Germany, more or less equal to each
other in power and without unified leadership. She
wished to hold the left bank of the Rhine as a guarantee
for building up and securing her hegemony in Europe.

The final aim of French diplomacy is in contra-
diction to the final tendencies of British statesman¬
ship.

246

MY STRUGGLE

There does not exist any British, American or
Italian statesman who could ever be designated
‘^pro-German’’. Every Englishman, in his capacity
as a statesman, is British first of all, and the same wiili
every American. And no Italian would be prepared
to further any policy other than pro-Italian. Anyonc,
therefore, who expects to build up alliances witli
foreign nations, relying on pro-Germanism amongsi
statesmen of other countries, is either an ass or no triic
statesman.

England did not want Germany as a world Power ,
France did not want Germany to be a Power at all
—a very essential difference ! We, however, are not
fighting for a place as a world Power, but we have to
struggle for our Fatherland’s existence, for our national
unity, and the daily bread of our children. From this
point of view, only two States are left as possiblc
friends for us : Great Britain and Italy.

Great Britain does not desire a France whosc
military power, unrestrained by the rest of Europe,
might cover a policy likely one day to run counter to
British interests ; France’s military predominance
presses sorely on the heart of the world Empire of
Great Britain.

Nor can Italy desire any further strengthening of
France’s position of power in Europe. Italy’s future
will always depend on developments affecting the
Mediterranean basin territorially. Her motive for
entering the War was not any desire to aggrandize
France, but rather her determination to give the death-
blow to her hated rivals on the Adriatic. Any increase
of French strength on the Continent means restrictions
for Italy’s future, and she does not deceive herseif into
thinking that national relationships in any way exclude
rivalries.

Cool and cautious consideration shows that it is
these two States, Great Britain and Italy, whose own
rnost natural interests are least in Opposition to the

MY STRUGGLE

247

conditions essential to the existence of the German
nation, and are, in fact, to a certain extent, identical

with them.

Little though it is to the interest of official British
policy that Germany should be further abased, such a
development is very greatly to the interest of the Jews
of international fmance. In contradistinction to the
interests of the welfare of the British State, the Jewry
of Finance desires not only Germany s perpetual
economic abasement, but also her complete political
enslavement. Therefore the Jew is the great agitator

for Germany’s destruction.^ _ ^

The trend of thought in Jewry is clear. It is to

bolshevize Germany, i.e., to rot away German national
Intelligence, and so crush the forces of German la.bour
under the yoke of Jewish world finance, as a preliminary
to extending far and wide the Jewish plan of conquer-

ing the world. .

' In England, as in Italy, the divergence of views

between solid statesmanship and the demands of the
Jewish financial world is obvious ; often, indeed, it is
crudely apparent.

It is only in France that there was intimate agree-
ment between the intentions of the Stock Exchange, as
represented by the Jews, and the desires of that nation’s
statesmen, who are Chauvinistic by nature. This
identity constitutes an immense danger to Gerniany.

It is, of course, not easy for us of the National
Socialist movement to imagine Britain as a possible
future ally. Our Jewish Press succeeded agam and
again in concentrating hatred on Great Britain, and
many a silly German bullfinch flew only too readily on
to the bird-lime made ready by the Jews, chattered
about “re-strengthening” the Navy, protested against
the loss of our colonies, and suggested that we ought
to recover them ; thus, they furnished the matenal for
the Jewish rascal to turn over to his relations in

248

MY STRUGGLE

England for use as Propaganda. It ought by now to dawn
on our foolish bourgeois politicians that what we hav(‘
to fight for now is not ^‘sea power’’. Even before thr
War it was folly to use up our national strength foi
such objects without first ensuring our position in
Europe. An aspiration of that sort is one of thosc
stupidities which in politics go by the name of crimes.

I must mention one particular hobby which tlu*
Jew bestrode with particular skill during recent years :
South Tyrol.

Yes, South Tyrol !

I wish to state that I was one of those who, at th(' j
time when the fate of South Tyrol was being decided ^
that is, from August, 1914, to November, 1918— ‘i
went where that country was being defended in practice, |
i.e., into the Army. I fought throughout all that |
period, not in Order that South Tyrol should be lost, J
but that it, as well as every other German country,
should be preserved for the Fatherland. For South I
Tyrol was naturally not guaranteed to Germany by
the lying and inflammatory Speeches of smart Parlia-
mentarians in the Vienna Rathus or the Feldherrnhalle in i
Munich, but solely by the battalions at the fighting ' |
front. It was these people who broke up that front |
that betrayed South Tyrol, as well as all the other ^
German districts. 1

The disgraceful part of it all is that the talkers j
themselves do not believe that anything is to be gained j
by their protests. They themselves know very well |
how harmless and hopeless their pottering ways are. |
They only do it because it is easier now to chatter 1
about recovering South Tyrol than at one time it was j
to fight for its retention. Fach one does his bit ; we '
offered our blood for it, now these people sharpen !
their noses over it. ’

If the German nation is to stop the rot which
threatens Europe it must not fall into the errors of the

MY STRUGGLE

249

pre-War period, and make enemies of God and the
World, but it must ascertain who its most dangerous
opponents are so as to oppose them with all its concen-
trated force. If Germany acts thus, the coming race
will realize our great needs and anxieties, and admire
our bitter determination the more when they see the
brilliant success which will result from it.

It was the fantastic idea of an alliance with the
dead carcase of the Habsburg State which ruined
Germany. To-day fantastic sentimentality in hand-
ling the possibilities of foreign policy is the best means
for preventing our rising again for all time.

What did our governments do to infuse into this
nation once again the spirit of proud independence,
manly defiance and national determination ?

In 19195 when the German nation was burdened
with the Peace Treaty, there was justification in hoping
that that document of oppression would help on the
cry for Germany’s liberation. It happens sometimes
that treaties of peace whose conditions beat upon a
nation like scourges sound the first trumpet call for
the resurrection which follows later.

How much might have been made out of the

Treaty of Versailles !

Each point of it might have been burnt into the
brains and feelings of the nation, tili finally the common
shame and the common hatred would have become a
sea of flaming fire in the minds of sixty millions of men
and women ; out of the glowing mass a will of Steel
would have emerged, and a cry : We will be armed as
others are armed !

Every opportunity was missed, and nothing was
done. Who will wonder that our nation is not what
it ought to be, and might be ?

A nation—in a position such as ours—will not be
considered fit for alliances unless Government and

250

MY STRUGGLE

public opinion determine to co-operate in proclaiming
and defending their will to fight for freedom.

The cry for a new war fleet, restoration of our
colonies, etc., is obviously more empty talk, since il
contains no idea of practical possibility ; calm con-
sideration shows this at once. Those who protest are
exhausting themselves in harmful demonstrations
against God and the rest of the world, and they forget
the first principle, which is essential to all success :
what thou doest do thoroughly. By howling against
five or ten States, we neglect to concentrate all the
forces of the national will and physique for a blow at
the heart of our most impassioned enemy, and we are
sacrificing the possibility of acquiring strength by
means of alliances for a revision of the shame.

This is where there is a mission for the National
Socialist movement. It must teach our people to
pass over trifles and look towards what is great, not to
split up on account of side issues, and never to forget
that the aim for which we have to fight to-day is the
bare existence of our nation, and the one enemy at
whom we have to strike is ever the force which is
robbing us of that existence.

The German nation has, moreover, no moral right
to complain of the attitude adopted by the rest of the
World until it has punished the criminals who sold and
betrayed their own country.

Is it conceivable that those who represent the true
interests of the nations with whom an alliance is pos-
sible will be able to carry their views against the will
of the mortal enemy of free national States ?

The fight waged by Fascist Italy against the three
main forces of Jewry—-unconsciously, perhaps, though
I personally do not believe that—is the best of proofs
that the poison fangs of that power outside and above the
State are being drawn, even though by indirect means.

MY STRUGGLE 251

Secret societies are prohibited, the independent, super¬
national Press is prosecuted, and international Marxism

has been broken down.

Even in England there is a continuous ^ struggie
going on between the repräsentatives of British State

interests and the Jewish world dictatorship.

One saw after the War, for the first time, how closely
these opposite forces impinged on each other in the
attitude of British State leadership on the one hand
and of the Press on the other, towards the problem of
Japan. Directly the War was over the old mutual
Irritation between America and Japan began to
reappear. Ties of relationship could not prevent a
certain feeling of jealous anxiety growmg up against
the American Union in every domain of internationa
economics and politics. It is comprehensible that
Britain should anxiously run through the hst of her old
alliances and see a moment arriving when the word
would not be “Great Britain overseas , but ihe

Ocean for America”. . r- i

It was not a British interest, but m the first place a

Jewish one, to destroy Germany, just as, to-day, the
destruction of Japan would serve British State interests
less than it would the far-reaching wishes of Ae Con¬
troller of the hoped-for Jewish world-einpire. ^ Whilst
England is exhausting herseif in inaintainmg her
Position in the world, the Jew is organizing his measures

for its conquest. , j

The Jew knows very well that after his thousand

vears of accommodation he is able to undermine the

peoples of Europe and bring them up to be bastards

without a race, but that he could hardly do the same

to an Asiatic national State such as Japan.

To-day, therefore, he is inciting the nations against
Japan as he does against Germany, so that it may well
happen that, whilst British Statesmanship _ is t^mg to
build on the Japanese alliance, the Jewish Press in
England may be at the same time calling for a fight

252

MY STRUGGLE

against the ally, and prcparing for a war of extermina-i
tion, by proclaiming democracy and raising the slogan :
Down with Japanese Militarism and Imperialism.

Thus the Jew is to-day a rebel in England, and the
struggle against the Jewish world menace will be started
there also.

The National Socialist movement must see to it
that in our own country at least the deadly enemy is
realized, and that the fight against him may be a torch
to illumine a less murky period for other nations as
well, and may bring benefit to Aryan humanity in its
struggle for life.

CHAPTER XIV

POLICY IN THE ORIENT

O UR so-called Intelligentsia are beginning in a
most unhealthy fashion to divert our foreign
policy from any real representation of our national
Interests, in order that it may serve their fantastic
theories, and I feel myself obliged to speak with special
care to my adherents on a most important question of
foreign policy, namely, our relations towards Russia,
since it ought to be understood by all and can be

treated in a work such as this.

The duty of the foreign policy of a national State
is to ensure the existence of the race included in that
State by keeping a natural and healthy proportion
between the numbers and the increase of the nation
and the size and quality of the land in which they

dwell.

Nothing but sufficient space on the earth ensures
freedom of existence to a nation. In this way only
can the German nation defend herseif as a world Power.
For nearly two thousand years our national Interests,
as our more or less happily conceived foreign activities
may be termed, played their part in the world’s history.
We ourselves can witness to that. For the great
struggle of the nations from 1914 to 19^^ the

German nation struggling for its existence in the
world, and it went by the name of the World War.

At that time the German nation was ostensibly a
world Power. I say “ostensibly” because it was really
not a world Power. If the German nation had pre-
served the proportion I referred to above, Germany
would really have been a world Power, and the War

353

«1

254 MY STRUGGLE |

might, apart from all other factors, have been eithci 1
avoided or ended in our favour. J

To-day, Germany is not a world Power. From a |
purely territorial point of view, the area of the German j
Reich is insignificant compared with thosc of the j
so-called world Powers. England is not an cxample lo |
be quoted, since the British Mother Country is really ]
but the great Capital city of the British world Empire, :
which Claims nearly a quarter of the earth’s surtace as i
its property. We must rather look at giant States J
such as the American Union, then at Russin and China
—enclosed areas, some of them ten times as big as the j
German Empire. France herseif must be reckoned as
one of their number. She is constantly adding to her |;
Army from the coloured populations of her immense ^
Empire. If France goes on as she is now doing for
three hundred years, she will have a powerful enclosed i
territory from the Rhine to the Congo, filled with a *
race continually becoming more and more bastardized.
That is where French colonial policy diifers from
Germany’s former one.

Ours neither increased the lands occupied by the.
German race, nor did it make the criminal attempt lo
strengthen the Empire by introducing black blood.
The Askari in German East Africa were a small hesi-
tating Step in that direction, but actually they were
only used for defence of the colony itself.

We have ceased to enjoy any position compared
with the other great States of the world, and that
thanks merely to the fatal direction of our nation in
foreign policy, to an absolute lack of any tradition, as
I might call it, of a definite policy in foreign affairs,
and to loss of all sound instinct and urge to maintain
ourselves as a nation.

All this must be remedied by the National Socialist
movement, which must attempt to remove the dis-
proportion between our population and our area—

MY STRUGGLE

•^55

the latter seen both as the source of nourishment and
the basis of political power—between our historic past
and the hopelessness of our present impotence.

One of the greatest achievements of German policy
was the formation of the Prussian State, and the culti-
vation, through it, of the idea of a State; also the
building up of the German Army, brought up to datc
with modern requirements. The change from the idea
of individual defence to national defence as a duty
sprang directly from that State formation and the new
principles which it introduced. It is impossible to
exaggerate the significance of that event. The German
nation, disintegrated by excess of individualism, became
disciplined under the Prussian Army organism and
recovered by its means at least some of the capacity
for Organization which had been lost. By the process
of military training, we recovered for ourselves as a
nation what other nations have always possessed in
their pursuit of unity. Therefore the abolition of the
Obligation of military Service—which may have no
point for dozens of other nations—is of fateful signifi¬
cance to US. Given ten generations of Germans with-
out the discipline and education of military training,
and delivered over to the evil influences of the uis»
unity which is in their blood—and our nation would
have lost the last relics of independent existence on this
planet. The German spirit would have made its con-
tribution to civilization solely under the flags of foreign
nations, and its origin would have been lost in oblivion.

It is highly important for our manner of proceeding
both now and in future that the real political successes
of our nation and the profitless objects for which the
blood of our nation was spilt should be clearly dis-
tinguished and kept apart. The National Socialist
movement must never join in with the vicious and
noisy patriotism of our bourgeois world of to-day. It

256

MY STRUGGLE

is especially dangerous for us to regard ourselves a.s
being in the least bound by the developments jusl
before the War. Our object must be to bring our
territory into harmony with the numbers of oui
Population.

The demand for restoration of the frontiers of 191/]
is politically foolish. Yet those who persist in it pro-
claim it as the object of their action in politics, and by
so doing they tend to consolidate the hostile alliancc
which would otherwise be falling apart in the natural
course. This is the only explanation why, eight years
after a world struggle in which States with hetero-
geneous desires and aims took part, the then victorious
coalition manages to carry on in a more or less solid
formation.

All those States profited at the time by Germany’s
collapse. Fear of our strength thrust the mutual envy
and jealousy of the individual Great Powers into the
background. They considered that, if our Empire
could be divided up between them, it would be the best
guard against any future rising. An evil conscience
and the fear of our nation’s strength is the most effectual
cement for binding the members of that alliance
together.

Times have altered since the Congress of Vienna.
Princes and their mistresses no longer gamble for pro-
vinces, but now the pitiless international Jew is fight¬
ing for Control of the nations.

The frontiers of 1914 mean nothing in respect ol'
Germany’s future. They were no protection in the
past, nor would they mean strength in the future.
They would not give the German nation internal
solidarity, nor would they provide it with nourishment ;
from a military standpoint, they would not be suitable
or even satisfactory, nor would they improve our

MY STRUGGLE

257

present Situation with regard to the other world Powers^
or rather, the Powers that are the real world

Powers.

Only one thing is certain. Any attempt to restore
the frontiers of 19^45 ^ven if successful, would merely
lead to a further pouring out of our nation’s blood,
until there were none left worth mentioning for the
decisions and actions which are to remake the life and
future of the nation. On the contrary'^, the vain
glamour of that empty success would cause us to
renounce any more distant objectivej since national
honour” would then be satisfied and the door opened
once again, anyhow until something eise happened, for
commcrcial enterprise. It is the duty of us National
Socialists to ding steadfastly to our aims in foreign
policy, and these are to assure to the German nation
the territory which is due to it on this earth.

No nation on earth holds a square yard of territory
by any right derived from heaven. Frontiers are made

and altered by human agency alone.

The fact that a nation succeeds in acquiring an
unfair share of territory is no superior reason for its
being respected. It merely proves the strength of the
conqueror and the weakness of those who lose by it.
This strength solely constitutes the right to possess.^

However much we recognize to-day the necessity of
an agreement with France, it will be uselessin thelong
run if our general objcctive in foreign policy is to be
sacrificed for the sake of it. There can only be sense in
it if it offers a backing for the space which our peoplc
are to inhabit in Europe. For acquisition of colonies
will not solve that question—nothing, in fact, but the
gain of territory for settlement, which will not only keep
the new settlers in dose communication with the land
of their origin but will guarantee to the combination all
the advantages arising from the size of the united

whole.

R

258

MY STRUGGLE

We National Socialists have deliberately drawn ii
line under the pre-War tendency of our foreign policy.
We are where they were six hundred years ago. Wi-
Stern the Germanic stream towards the South and Wcsi
of Europe, and tum our eyes eastwards. We have
finished with the pre-War policy of colonies and trade,
and are going over to the land policy of the future.

Fate itself seems to wish to give us our directioii.
When fate abandoned Russia to Bolshevism it robbcd
the Russian people of the educated dass which once
created and guaranteed their existence as a State.
The Germanic dement may now be regarded as entirely
wiped out in Russia. The Jew has taken its place. It
is as impossible for the Russian to shake off the Jewisli
yoke by his own strength, as it is for the Jew to keej)
control of the vast empire for any length of time. His
character is not that of an organizer but of a decom-
posing leaven. The immense Empire will one day
collapse.

As early as 1920-21 the Party was approached froni
various quarters in an attempt to bring it into touch
with liberationist movements in other countries. Il
was on the lines of the much advertised “Association of
Oppressed Nations”. They consisted chiefly of repre-
sentatives of certain Balkan States, also some frorn
Egypt and India, who impressed me as being chatter-
ing busybodies, with nothing behind them. But therc
were quite a few Germans, especially among the
Nationalists, who let themselves be taken in by thosc
jabbering Orientais and imagined that any Indian or
Egyptian Student who happened to turn up was a
genuine “representative” of India or Egypt. They
never troubled to inquire, nor did they realize thal
these were people with nothing behind them and
without authority from anyone to conclude any sort of
agreement; so that the result of dealing with such
characters was just nil and mere waste of time.

.MY STRUGGLE

'•^59

I well remember the childish and incomprehensible
hopes which arose suddenly in 1920-21 in Nationalist
circles. England was supposed to be on the verge of
collapse in India. A few mountebanks from Asia
(they may have been genuine fighters for freedom in
India, for all I care), who ran round Europe, had
managed to inspire quite reasonable people with the
fixed idea that the British world Empire, with its pivot
in India, was just about to collapse there. That the
wish was father to the thought never occurred to

them.

It is childish to assume that in England the impor-
tance of the Indian Empire for the British world union
is not appreciated. And it is a sad proof of refusal to
take a lesson from the World War and to realize the
determination of the Anglo-Saxon character when
people imagine that England would let India go, It
also proves the complete ignorance prevailing in Gei-
many as to the methods by which the British administer
that Empire. England will never lose India imless
she gives way to racial confusion in her machinery of
administration or iinless she is forced to do so by the
sword of a powerful enemy. Indian risings will never
be successful. W^e Germans know well enough by
experience how hard it is to force England s hand»
Apart from all this, I, speaking as a^ Gennan, would
far rather see India under British domination than that
of any other nation.

The hopes of a mythical rising in Egypt against
British influence were equally ill-founded.

It was bad enough in times of peace. The alliances
with Austria and Turkey were nothing to rejoice over.
At a moment when the greatest military and industrial
States in the world were joining together in an active
offensive alliance, we collected a couple of weak, out-
of-date States and attempted, with the aia of a mass of
lumber, fated to go under, to face an active world

260 MY STRUGGLE

coalition. Germany paid heavily for this error in
foreign policy.

As a Nationalist, estimating humanity by the
principle of race, I cannot admit that it is right to chain
the fortunes of one’s nation to the so-called “oppressed
nationalities”, since I know how worthless they are
racially.

The present-day rulers of Russia have no intention
of entering into any alliance for a long period.

We must not forget that Bolshevists are blood-stained,
that, favoured lay circumstances in a tragic hour, they
overran a great State, and in a fury of massacre wiped
out millions of their most intelligent fellow-countiymen,
and now, for ten years, they have been conducting the
most tyrannous regime of all time. We must not
forget that many of them belong to a race which
Combines a rare mixture of bestial cruelty and vast
skill in lies, and considers itself specially called now to
gather the whole world under its bloody oppression.
We must not forget that the international Jew, who
continues to dominate over Russia, does not regard
Germany as an ally but as a State destined to undergo
a similar fate.

The menace which Russia suffered under is one
which perpetually hangs over Germany. Germany is
the next great objective of Bolshevism. All the strength
of a young missionary idea is needed to raise up our
nation once more, rescue it from the embrace of the
international python, and stem the corruption of its
blood at home, so that the forces of the nation, once
set free, may be employed in preserving our nationality.
If this is our aim, it is folly to be too intimate with a
Power whose ideal might become the deadly enemy of
our future.

One special sin which the old German Empire
committed with respect to its policy of alliances was

261

MY STRUGGLE

that it spoiled its relations towards all by continually
swinging this way and that, and by its weakness in
preserving peace at all costs. One thing only it cannot
be reproached with , it did not continue to maintain

its good relations with Russia.

I admit frankly that during the War I thought it
would have been better if Germany had renounced
her foolish colonial policy and her naval policy, had
joined England in an alliance for defence against a
Russia invasion, and had abandoned her weak aspir-
ation to cover the whole world for a determined
policy of acquiring territory on the Continent of Europe.

I do not forget the perpetual insolent threats
offered Germany by pan-Slavist Russia ; I do not
forget the continual practice mobilizations, the sole
object of which was to annoy Germany ; _I cannot
forget the temper of public opinion in Russia, which,
before the War, excelled itself in hate-inspired attacks
on our nation and Empire, nor can I forget the great
Russian Press, which was always more in favour of

France than of us.

The present consolidation of the Great Powers is
the last warning signal to us to take thought and bring
our people back from their dreamland to the hard
truth, and show^ the w’^ay by which alone the old Reich

may blossom forth once again.

If the National Socialist movement shakes off all
illusions and takes reason as its sole leader, the cata-
strophe of 1918 may turn out to be an immense blessing
for the future of our nation. W e may end by gaining
what England possesses, what even Russia possessed,
and what France, time and again, used in making
correct decisions for her own interests : a Political

Tradition.

The results of an alliance with England and Italy
would be directly opposite to those of one with Russia.

262

MY STRUGGLE

The most important one is the fact that a rapprocht.-
ment with those two countries would not at all mean :i
risk of war, The only Power which might assume an
attitude in Opposition to such an alliance—France—
would not be in a position to do so. The new Anglo-
German-Italian Alliance would hold the reins, and
Brance would cease to do so. Almost equally importanl
would be the fact that the new Alliance would include
States w'hich possess technical qualities that mutually
Supplement each other,

There would, of course, be difficulties, as I said in
the previous chapter, in bringing such an alliance
about. But was the making of the Entente any less
easy ? Where King Edward was successful against
interests which were by nature mutually opposed, we
shall and must succeed, if the knowledge of the neces-
sity of some such development inspires us to concert
our action with skill and ripe consideration.

We shall, of course, come up against the spiteful
yappings of enemies of our race at hörne. We National
Socialists must realize this if we proclaim what our
inward conviction teils us is absolutely essential. We
must harden ourselves to face public opinion, driven
crazy by Jewish cunning in exploiting our German
lack of thought. To-day we are but a rock in the
river ; in a few years Fate may erect us as a dam
against which the general stream will be broken, only
to flow forward in the new bed.

CHAPTER XV.

EMERGENCY DEFENCE AS A RIGHT

XT 7 HEN W'e laid down our arms in November, 1918,
\\ a policy was entered upon which in all human
probability was bound to lead to utter ruin.

It became comprehensible how a period of time
which was sufficient, between 1806 and 1813, to fill
Prussia, utterly defeated though she was, wdth new
energy and fighting spirit, was allowed to go by without
being made use of, and, in fact, led to ever furthcr
weakening of our State. The reason for it was that
after the shameful Armistice was signed, no one had
either energy or courage to oppose measures of oppres-
sion which the enemy was repeatedly bringing about.
He was too clever to demand too much at any one

• II

Orders for disarmament, making us pohtically
helpless, and economic plunderings followed one after
another, with the idea of producing the spirit which
would regard General Dawes’ mediation as a piece of
luck.

By the winter of 1922-23 it was rcalized by all that,
even after the conclusion of Peace, France was working
with iron determination to achieve her original war
aims. For no one will believe that in the course of the
four years of the most decisive struggle in her histor>'
France shed the not too rieh blood of her people simply
in Order later on to receive compensation through
Reparations for the losses she would sustain. Alsace-
Eorraine, by itself, would not explain the energy of the
French war leaders, if it was not already part of France’s
great political programme of the future. That

263

264

MY STRUGGLE

Programme was as follows : Disintegration of Germany
into a Collection of small States. That was what
Chauvinist France fought for, and in doing so, she was
selling her nation to be vassals in truth of the inter¬
national World Jew.

Germany did indeed collapse with lightning sud-
denness in November, 1918. But, whilst the cata-
strophc was happening at home, the armies were still
deep in the enemy countries. France’s first care was,
at that time, not the disintegration of Germany, but
rather how to get the German armies as quickly as
possible out of France and Belgium. Thus the first
task of the leaders in Paris in finishing up the War was
to disarm the German armies and force them back
into Germany if possible ; not tili that was accom-
plished could they devote attention to attaining their
own original war aim. For England, the War was
really won when Germany was destroyed as a colonial
and commercial Power, and was reduced to bccoming
a State of secondary importance. She had no interest
in blotting out the German State altogether ; in fact,
she had every reason to desire a future rival against
France in Europe. Thus France had to wait for peace
before setting out on the work for which the War had
laid the foundation, and Clemenceau’s declaration that
for him the Peace was merely a continuation of the
War, acquired additional significance.

France’s intentions must have been known by the
winter of 1922-23.

In December, 1922, the Situation between Germany
and France appeared to have become threatening
again. France was contemplating vast new measures
of oppression, and needed sanctions for her action. It
was hoped in France that, by occupying the Ruhr,
she would finally break Germany’s backbone and
bring us into a desperate economic position in which

MY STRUGGLE

265

we should be forced to assume very heavy obligations.

By the occupation of the Ruhr, Fate once more
offered the German nation a chance of asserting itself;
for what at first glance seemed to be a terrible mis-
fortune, contained, on closer observation, extremely
promising possibilities of ending the sufferings of
Germany.

For the first time France had truly and deeply
estranged England—not merely the British diplomats
who had concluded the French alliance and maintained
and regarded it with the cautious vision of cool cal-
culation, but large sections of the nation as well. The
business world in particular feit with scarcely con-
’cealed irritation this immense further strengthening of
France’s power on the Continent. Her occupation of
the Ruhr coal-field deprived England of all the suc-
cesses she had gained in the War, and it was Marshai
Foch and France, which he represented, and not the
alert and painstaking diplomacy of England, which
now were the victors.

Feeling in Italy also turned against France.
Indeed, directly the War ended that friendship ceased
to be cxactly rosy, and now it turned into absolute
hatred. The moment had come when the allies of
yesterday might have become the foes of to-morrow.
That this was not brought about was due mainly to the
fact that Germany had no Enver Pasha, but merelv a
Cuno, for Chancellor.

In the spring of 1923, however, before the French
occupation of the Ruhr could have been followed by a
rebuilding of our military power, a new spirit would
have had to be implanted in the German nation, its
will-power strengthened, and the corrupters of^ that
greatest of forces in a nation would have had to be
destroyed.

Just as the bloodshed of 1918 was a retribution for
the neglect in 1914 and 1915 to crush the Marxist

266

MY STRUGGLE

serpent underfoot, so was tliere boiind to be a terrible
punishment in the spring of 1923 for failing to seize
the opportunity which was offered for finally destroy-
ing the handiwork of the Marxist traitors and murder-
ers of the nation. Only bourgeois minds could have
arrived at the incredible conception that Marxism
could possibly now be other than it had been, and that
the Canaille who had led in 1918, and who, then, without
a qualm, used two million dead as Steps up to seats in
the Government, would now be ready to pay servdce
to the nation’s sense of right. It was incredible folly
to expect that those traitors would suddenly turn into
fighters for Germany’s liberation. They were not
dreaming of doing so ! A Marxist is as little likely to
turn from treason as a hyena will turn from carrion !

The Situation in 1923 was very similar to that of
1918. The first essential to whatever form of resistance
was decided upon was expulsion of the Marxist poison
from the body of our nation. I was convinced that the
very first duty of any truly national government was to
seek and find forces determiried on a war to destroy
Marxism, and to graut those forces a free hand ; it
was their duty not to pay court to the folly of ‘^order
and tranquillity’’ at a moment when the foreign enemy
was giving the death-blow to the Fatherland, and at
home treason was lurking at every Street corner. No,
a truly national government ought to have wished for
unrest and disorder, if the resulting confusion was the

onlv method for a final settlement with the Marxist

/

enemies of our nation.

I have frequently implored the so-called Nationalist
Parties to give Fate a free hand and allow our Move¬
ment the means to come to a reckoning with Marxism ;
but I preached to deaf ears. They all thought they
knew better, including the Chief of the Defence Force,
tili finally they found themselves face to face with the
most miserable capitulation of all time. I then realized

«

MY STRUGGLE

267

deep within myself that the German bourgeoisie had
come to the end of its mission and could be called upon
to perform no further task.

At that period—I confess it frankly—I conceived a
fcrvent admiration for the great man south of the Alps,
whose deep love for his nation forbade him to bargain
with Italy’s domestic enemies, and who fought to
destroy them by every possible means and method.
The quality which ranks Mussolini with the world’s
great men is his determination not to share Italy with
Marxism, but to save his country by giving enemies of
the nation over to destruction. How dwarfish our
sham statesmen in Germany appear in comparison
wdth him !

The attitude adopted by our bourgeoisie and the
way they spared Marxism decided the fate of any
attempt at active resistance in the Ruhr from the Start.
It was folly to try and fight France with that deadly
enemy in our midst.

Even in the spring of 1923 easy to predict

what would happen. It is useless to discuss whether
there was or was not a chance of a military success
against France. For if the result of German action in
the matter of the Ruhr had been merely destruction of
Marxism in Germany, the success would have been on
our side. Germany, once freed from the deadly
enemies of her life and future, would possess a force
which no world could ever again strangle. On the
day when Marxism is broken in Germany its bonds are
broken in good truth.

For never in our history have we been conquered
by the forces of our enemies, but rather by our own
depravity and by the enemy in our own camp.

However, in a great moment of Inspiration, Heaven
made Germany a present of a great man, Herr Guno,
whose method of reasoning was as follows : “France is

268

MY STRUGGLE

T

occupying the Ruhr ; what is there there ? Goal.

Is France occupying the Ruhr for the sake of its coal ?”
What could occur more obviously to Herr Cuno than
the notion that a strike would deprive the French of js
the coal, and that they would then sooner or later clear
out of the Ruhr, since the enterprise was not proving a
paying one ? That was the train of thought of that
“outstanding” “national” “statesman”.

For a strike they naturally needed the Marxists, for
it concerned the workers in the first place. So it was
essential to bring the worker (in the brain of a bourgeois
statesman such as Cuno, lie is synonymous with the
Marxist) into line with all the other Germans on the
United front. The Marxists quickly came in with the
idea ; for the Marxist leaders needed Cuno’s money
just as much as Cuno required them for his “united
front”.

>1

If Herr Cuno at that moment, instead of encouraging i
a purchased general strike and making it the basis ofl
his “united front”, had demanded two hours morej
work from every German, the swindle of the “united |
front” would have been disposed of in three days. n
Nations do not achieve liberty by doing nothing but byl

sacrifice. 3

This so-called passive resistance could never have ]
been kept up for any length of time. No one but a 1
man who knew nothing about war could imagine he •
could drive out an army of occupation by methods so ‘
absurd.

If the Westphalians in the Ruhr had been con-
scious of an army of eighty or a hundred Divisions
ready to support them, the French would have been
treading on thorns.

As soon as the Marxist Trades Unions had practi-
cally filled up their money-boxes out of Cuno’s con-
tributions, and it was nearly decided to change slack
passive resistance into active attack, the Red hyena all

269

MY STRUGGLE

at once broke away from the national sheepfold and
returned to being what they always had been. With-
out a murmur, Flerr Cuno retired on board his ships,
and Germany became richer by one experience and

poorer by one great hope.

But when the wretched collapse began, and the

shameful capitulation took place after a sacrifice of
milliards of money and many thousands of young
Germans—who had been so simple as to trust the
promises of the rulers of the Reich indignation
against such betrayal of our unhappy country burst
forth in a blaze. In millions of people the conviction
shone forth that nothing but a radical purging of the
whole System prevailing in Germany would bring

Salvation.

In this book I can merely repeat the last sentence
of my Speech at the great Trial of the spring of 1924 :

“Though the Judges of this State rnay be happy in
their condemnation of our actions, yet History, the
goddess of a higher truth and of a better law, will
smile as she tears up this judgment, and will declare all
of US innocent of blame and the duty of expiation.

I shall not attempt to describe here the events
which led to and decided those of November, 1923 ;
because I do not think it will be of any profit for the
future, and because there is really no point in tearing
open wounds which are still hardly scabbed over, or m
talking of guilt in the case of persons who all, perhaps,
clung to their nation with equal love in the depth of
their hearts, but merely misscd the common road or
failed to agree together regarding it.

270

MY STRUGGLE

OFFICIAL PARTY MANIFESTO ON THE
POSITION OF THE N.S.D.A.P. WITH REGARl»
TO THE FARMING POPULATION AND

AGRICULTURE—

Munich, March 6th, 1930.

I. IMPORTANCE OF THE FARMING GLASS AND OF
AGRICULTURE FOR GERMANY

The German nation derive a considerable portion
of their food from importation of foreign food-stufFs.
Before the World War,we managed to pay for thesc
Imports with our industrial exports, our trade, and our
deposits of Capital abroad. The outcome of the War
put an end to this possibility.

To-day we are paying for our imported food mostly
with the help of foreign loans, which drive the German
nation deeper and deeper in debt to the international
financiers who provide credits. If things go on as they
are, the German people will become more and more
impoverished.

The only possibility of escaping from this thraldom
lies in the ability of Germany to produce essential food
stuffs at home. Increased production by German agri-
culture is therefore a question of life and death for the
German nation.

Moreover, a country popuIation, economically sound
and highly productive, is essential for our industry,
which will in future have more and more to look for
openings in the home market.

We also regard the country popuIation as the
bearer of the inheritance of health, the source of the
nation’s youth, and as the backbone of its armed
strength.

Maintenance of an efRcient agricultural dass,
increasing in numbers as the general popuIation

MY STRUGGLE

271

increases, is an essential plank in the National Socialist
platform, because our movement considers the welfare
of all our people in the generations to come.

2. THE PRESENT-DAY STATE’s NEGLECT OF THE
FARMING CLASS AND OF AGRICULTURE

Agricultural production, which in itself is capable
of being augmented, is being handicapped, because the
increasing indebtedness of the Farmers prevents their
purchasing the necessities of cultivation, and because
the fact that farming does not pay removes the induce¬
ment to increase production.

The reasons why farming falls to give a sufficient
return for the labour are to be sought:

1. In the existing fiscal policy, which lays undue
burdens on agriculture. This is due to Party con-
siderations, and because the Jewish world money
market—which really Controls parliamentary democ-
racy in Germany—wishes to destroy German agricul¬
ture, since this would place the German nation, and
especially the working dass, at its mercy ;

2. In the competition of foreign agriculturists, who
work under more favourable conditions, and who are
not held in check by a policy of protection for German
agriculture ;

3. In the extravagant profits made by the large
Wholesale middlemen, who thrust themselves in between
producer and consumer.

4. In the oppressive rates the Farmer has to pay
for electric power and artificial manures to concerns
mainly run by Jews.

The high taxation cannot be met out of the poor
return for labour, on the land. The Farmer is forced
to run into debt and to pay usurious Interest for loans.
He sinks deeper and deeper under this tyranny, and in the
end forfeits all that he possesses to the Jew money-lender.

The German farming dass is being expropriated.

272

MY STRUGGLE

3. IN THE REICH, AS WE HOPE TO SEE IT, THE RIGHTS
OF LAND SHALL BE RESPEGTED AND THERE SHALL BE l
AN AGRICULTURAL POLIGY FOR GERMANY 1

There can be no hope of any sweeping improve-J
ment in the conditions of poverty of the country popula- ij
tion, or of a revival of agriculture, as long as the Ger¬
man Government is in fact controlled by the inter¬
national money-magnates, helped by the parliamentar)'
democratic System of government ; for these desire to
destroy Germ any’s strength, which is based on the
land.

In the new and very different German State to
which WC aspire, the farmers and agriculture will
receive the consideration which is due to them owing
to the fact that they are a main Support of a truly
national German State.

1. The land of Germany, acquired and dcfended j
by the German nation, must be at the Service of the j
German nation, as a home and as a means of livelihood. !
Those who occupy the land must administer it in this
sense.

2. Only members of the German nation may
possess land.

3. Land legally acquired by them shall be regarded
as inheritable property. To the right to hold property.
however, is attached the Obligation to use it in the
national interest. Special Courts shall be appointed to
oversee this Obligation ; these shall consist of repre-
sentatives from all departments of the land-holding
dass, and one representative of the State.

4. German land may not become an object to
financial speculation (Cf. Point 17, p.19), nor may it
provide an unearned income for its owner. It may
only be acquired by him who is prepared to cultivate
it himself. Therefore the State has a right of pre-
emption on evcry sale of land.

It is forbidden to pledge land to private lenders.

MY STRUGGLE

273

The necessary loans for cultivation on easy terms will
be granted to farmers either by associations recognized
by the State or by the State itself.

5. Dues will be paid to the State for the use of
land according to the extent and quality of the pro¬
perty. This tax on land will obviate any further
taxation of landed property.

6. No hard and fast rule can be laid down as to
the amount of cultivation. From the point of view of
our population policy we require large numbers of
small and middle-sized farms. Farming on a large
scale, however, has a very essential part to play, and,
if it preserves a healthy relation towards the smaller
businesses, it is justifiable.

7. A law of inheritance will be required to prevent
subdivision of property and an accumulation of debt
upon it.

8. The State shall have the right of appropriating
land, suitable compensation being granted :

{a) when not owned by a member of the nation ;

(b) when—by a judgment of the Land Courts—it
is held that its owner, by bad farming, is not
acting in the national interest ;

{c) for the purpose of settling independent farmers
on it, when the owner is not cultivating it
himself;

{d) when it is required for special State purposes in
the national interest (e.g., Communications,
national defence).

Land acquired illegally (according to German law)
may be confiscated without compensation.

g. It is the duty of the State to colonize land which
has become available, by a scheme based on high con-
siderations of a policy of population. The land shall
be allotted to settlers as a hereditary posscssion under
conditions which shall make a livelihood possible.
Settlers shall be selected by examination as to their
civic and professional suitability. Special favour shall

274

MY STRUGGLE

be shown to sons of farmers who have not the right to.
inherit (see §7).

Colonizadon of the eastern frontiers is of extreme
importance. In this case the mere establishment of
farms will not be sufficient, but it will be necessary to
set up market towns in Connection with the new branch
of industry. This is the only way to provide an open-
ing for making the smaller farms a paying proposition.

It will be the duty of Germany’s ibreign policy to
provide large spaces for the nourishment and Settle¬
ment of the growing population of Germany.

4. THE FARMING GLASS MUST BE R^\ISED EGONOMICALLY

AND EDUGATIÜNALLY

1. The present poverty of the land population
must be at once relieved by reinissions of taxation and
other emergency measures. Further indebtedness must
be stemmed by reducing the rate of interest on loans to
that of the pre-war period by law, and by summary
action against extortion.

2. It must be the State’s policy to see to it that
farming be made to pay. German agriculture must be
protected by tariffs, State regulaüon of imports, and a
scheme of national üaining.

The Settlement of prices for agricultural produce
must be freed from market speculation, and a stop must
be put to exploitation of the agricultural interest by
the large middlemcn, the transfer of whose business to
agricultural associations must be encouraged by the
State.

It shall be the task of such Professional organizations
to reduce the running expenses of farmers and increase
production. (Provision of implements, manures, seed,
breeding stock, on favourable conditions, improve-
ments, war against vermin, free advice, Chemical
research, etc.) The State shall provide full assistance
to the organizations in carr>’ing out their task, in

MY STRUGGLE

275

particular the State must insist on a considerable reduction
in the cost to farmers of artificial manures and electric

power.

The organizations must also establish the dass
of farm labourers as members of the farming Community
by contracts which are just in the social sense. Super¬
vision and arbitration in these matters will be the
function of the State. It must be made possible for
good labourers to rise to the Status of farm-owners.
The much called-for improvement in living conditions
and wages of farm labourers will ensue as soon as the
general farming Situation improves. When these con¬
ditions take a turn for the better, it will be 110 longer
necessary to employ foreign labour on the land, and
this custom will in fiiture be forbidden.

4. The national importance of the farming dass
requires that the State shall promote technical educa-
tion in agriculture. (Juvenile institutions, high schools
for agriculture, with very favourable terms for youths
with talent but no means.)

5. PROFESSIONAL ORGANIZATIONS GANNOT PROVIDE
ALL THE ASSISTANGE REQUIRED BY THE FARMING
GLASS ; ONLY THE POLITICAL MOVEMENT OF THE
N.S.D.A.P. FOR GERMAN LIBERTY GAN DO THIS

The country population are poor because the whole
German nation is poor. It is an error to imagine that
one single dass of workers can escape sharing the
fortunes of the German community as a whole—and
a crime to make jealousies between town-folk and
country-folk, who are bound together for good or ill.

Economic assistance under the present political
System cannot produce a permanent improvement, for
political slavery is at the root of our people’s poverty,
and political methods alone can remove that.

The old political Parties, which were, and are.

276

MY STRUGGLE

responsible for the national enslavement, cannot be
the leaders on the road to freedom.

There are important economic tasks awaiting Pro¬
fessional organizations in our future State ; even now
they can do much preparatory work in that direction ;
but for the political struggle of liberation, which is to
lay the foundation of a new economic Order, they are
not suitable ; for that struggle will have to be fought
out from the point of view not of a single profession, but
from that of the whole nation.

The Movement which will carry through the politi¬
cal struggle for liberation to the end is the N.S.D.A.P.

{Signed) Adolf Hitler.

THE 25 POINTS

The National Socialist German Workers’ Party, at 1
a great mass-meeting on February 25th, 1920, in the 1
Hofbräuhausfestsaal, in Munich, announced their 1
Programme to the world. |

In Section 2 of the Constitution of our Party this |
Programme is declared to be inalterable.

THE PROGRAMME !

The leaders have no intention, once the aims an- '
nounced in it have been achieved, of setting up fresh j

5 n^ierely iir order to increase the discontent of the |
masses artificially, and so ensure the continued exist- ;|
ence of the Party. |

1. We demand the Union of all Germans to form ]

a Great Germany on the basis of the right of the seif- ,]
determination enjoyed by nations. |

2. We demand equality of rights for the German 1
People in its dealings with other nations, and abolition |
of the Peace Treaties of Versailles and St. Germain. |

3. We demand land and territory (colonies) for |

MY STRUGGLE

277

the nourishment of our people and for settling our
superfluous population.

4. None but members of the nation may be
citizens of the State. None but those of German blood,
whatever their creed, may be members of the nation.
No Jew, therefore, may be a member of the nation.

5. Anyone who is not a Citizen of the State may
live in Germany only as a guest and must be regarded
as being subject to foreign laws.

6. The right of voting on the State’s government
and legislation is to be enjoyed by the citizens of the
State alone. We demand therefore that all official
appointments, of whatever kind, whether in the Reich,
in the country, or in the smaller localities, shall be
granted to citizens of the State alone.

We oppose the corrupting custom of Parliament of
filling posts merely with a view to Party considerations,
and without reference to character or capability.

7. We demand that the State shall make it its
first duty to promote the industry and livelihood of
citizens of the State. If it is not possible to nourish
the entire population of the State, foreign nationals
(non-citizens of the State) must be excluded from the
Reich.

8. All non-German Immigration must be pre-
vented. We demand that all non-Aryan, who
entered Germany subsequent to August 2nd, 1914,
shall be required forthwith to depart from the Reich.

9. All citizens of the State shall be equal as regards
rights and duties.

10. It must be the first duty of each citizen of the
State to work with his niind or with his body. The
activities of the individual may not clash with the
Interests of the whole, but must proceed within the
frame of the community and be for the general good.

WE DEMAND, THEREFORE :

Abolition of incomes uncarned by work.

II.

278

MY STRUGGLE

ABOLITION OF THE THRALDOM OF INTEREST

12. In view of the enormous sacrifice of life and
property demanded of a nation by every war, personal
enrichment due to a war must be regarded as a crime
against the nation We demand, therefore, ruthless
confiscation of all war gains.

13. We demand nationalization of all businesses
which have been up to the present formed into Com¬
panies (Trusts).

14. We demand that the profits from Wholesale
trade shall be shared out.

15. We demand extensive development of Pro¬
vision for old age.

16. We demand creation and maintenance of a
healthy middle dass, immediate communalization of
Wholesale business premises, and their lease at a cheap
rate to small traders, and that extreme consideration
shall be shown to all small purveyors to the State,
district authorities and smaller localities.

17. We demand land reform suitable to our
national requirements, passing of a law for confiscation
without compensation of land for communal purposes ;
abolition of interest on land loans, and prevention of
all speculation in land.*

18. We demand ruthless prosecution of those whose
activities are injurious to the common interest. Sordid
criminals against the nation, usurers, profiteers, etc.,
must be punished with death, whatever their creed or
race.

^On April i3th, 1928, Adolf Hitler made the following declaration:

Tt is necessary to reply to the false Interpretation on the part of our opponents
of Point 17 of the Programme of the N.S.D.A.P.

Since the N.S.D.A.P. admits the principle of private property, it is obvious
that the expression “confiscation without compensation’* mercly refers to possible
legal powers to confiscate, if necessary, land illegally acquired, or not administered
in accordance with national welfare. It is directed in accordance with national
welfare. It is directed in the first instancc against the Jewish Companies which
speculate in land.

Munich .April T3th, 1928.

{Signed) Adolf Hiti.er.

MY STRUGGLE

279

19. We demand that the Roman Law, which
serves the materialistic w'orld order, shall be replaced
by a legal System for all Germany.

20. With the aim of opening to every capable and
industrious German the possibility of higher education
and of thus obtaining advancement, the State must
consider a thorough reconstruction of our national
System of education. The curriculum of all educational
establishments must be brought into line with the
requirements of practical life. Comprehension of the
State idea (State sociology) must be the school objective,
beginning with the first dawn of intelligence in the
pupil. We demand development of the gifted children
of poor parents, whatever their dass or occupation, at
the expense of the State.

21. The State must see to raising the Standard of
health in the nation by protecting mothers and infants,
prohibiting child labour, increasing bodily efficiency by
obligatory gymnastics and sports laid do^vn by law,
and by extensive support of clubs engaged in the bodily
development of the young.

22. We demand abolition of a paid army and
formation of a national army.

23. We demand legal warfare against conscious
political lying and its dissemination in the Press. In
Order to facilitate creation of a German National Press,
we demand :

(ö) that all editors of newspapers and their assist-
ants, employing the German language, must be
members of the nation ;

{b) that special permission from the State shall be
necessary before non-German newspapers may
appear. These are not necessarily printed in
the German language ;

(r) that non-Germans shall be prohibited by law
from participation financially in or influencing
German newspapers, and that the penalty for
contravention of the law shall be suppression of

28 o

MY STRUGGLE

any such newspaper, and immediate deportation
of the non-German concerned in it.

It must be forbidden to publish papers which do
not conduce to the national welfare. We demand le^al
prosecution of all tendencies in art and literature of a
kind likely to disintegrate our life as a nation, and the
Suppression of institutions which militate against the
requirements above-mentioned.

24. We demand liberty for all religious denomi-
nations in the State, so far as they are not a danger to
it and do not militate against the moral Feelings of the
German race.

The Party, as such, Stands for positive Christianity,
but does not bind itself in the matter of creed to any
particular confession. It combats the Jewish material-
ist spiiit within us and without us, and is convinced
that our nation can only achieve permanent health
from within on the principle :

THE COMMON INTEREST BEFORE SELF

25. That all the foregoing may be realized we
demand the creation of a strong central power of the
State. Unquestioned authority of the politically cen-
tralized Parliament over the entire Reich and its
Organization ; and Formation of Chambers for classes
and occupations for the purpose of carrying out the
general laws promulgated by the Reich in the various
States of the confederation.

The leaders of the Party swear to go straight For¬
ward—if necessary to sacrifice their lives—in securing
fulfilment of the foregoing points.

Munich, February 24th, 1920.

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